Holocene peat in the Netherlands

Abstract

Peat comes in many kinds. Within the Holocene of the Netherlands, various types of deltaic, coastal and lagoonal peat are recognised. Over adjacent inlands even more types are known. We can look at them with ecological eyes (plant species, nutrient availability), hydrological eyes (maintaining their own local groundwater table, or obeying a regional one), with the eyes of miners, farmers and builders (opportunity for fuel and need for drainage and foundations), or with the eyes of palaeogeographers (past marshes, swamps, cushions, away from active sedimentary systems}.