One sign of peat cutting or drainage is the spread of purple moor grass (Molinia caerulea) on the bog surface, as seen here at Cors Caron, where it covers vast areas of secondary bog surface. On a healthy raised bog, purple moor grass would only achieve dominance in the sloping edges of the bog, aka the rand. However, it will certainly exploit areas of peat cuttings, and at some sites, achieve patchy dominance on the bog plateau. This has previously been seen as a sign of drying at the bog surface, but some of the locations where this is happening are wet throughout the year. As such, it seems that purple moor grass is adapting to these permanently wet conditions, perhaps aided by additional input of nitrogen from atmospheric deposition.
