Talk:Heath

In the lead it says: "There are some clear differences between heath and moorland. For example moorland has a very peaty topsoil, and it is also free-draining, whereas a heath is not" Then under characteristics it says "Heathland is favoured where climatic conditions are typically warm and dry, particularly in summer, and soils acidic, of low fertility, and often sandy and very free-draining" These sentences are contradictory so which is correct? Also, a number of the online dictionaries say that moor and moorland are synonyms for heath and Webster Online says a heath is "an extensive area of rather level open uncultivated land usually with poor coarse soil, inferior drainage, and a surface rich in peat or peaty humus" while the first sentence says that the peaty topsoil on moorland is one of the things that distinguishes it from a heath. Richerman (talk) 23:18, 3 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

You can't rely on school dictionaries for definitions of complex subjects. The Webster definition is flat out wrong when talking about the ecological meaning of heath, as evidenced by the multiple references provided in this article. Frankly I'm not sure what that definition refers to, but it clearly doesn't apply to >90% of the world's heaths. Since the moor distinction has been unreferenced for 18 months, we can safely remove it. Mark Marathon (talk) 01:21, 4 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

No, moorland is not characterised by being free-draining – in fact it rarely is (this text is so much the reverse of true that it may be vandalism). There is some academic argument (which really ought to be reflected somewhere here) about what the difference actually is between heath and moor, and indeed whether there is a real difference at all. I don't think it's accurate to say "there are clear differences" between them. UK ecologists tend to treat heath and moor as different, whereas others often don't, in which case they usually call anything dominated by ericaceous dwarf shrubs "heathland". Generally in the UK moorland occurs in the uplands of the north and west, where rocks are mostly impermeable and rainfall is high. Therefore they tend to have wet soils with lots of peat. Heaths generally occur in lowlands, usually in the south and east, where rainfall is much lower and many substrates (such as sandstone and gravels) are permeable. Therefore they often have little or no peat – but where drainage is obstructed, they can have peat too (and then they grade into mire).

I agree with Mark's point about the Webster definition, which is more like 19th century (and earlier) common usage, where "heath", "waste" and "moor" were used for pretty much any rough uncultivated land regardless of vegetation or soil chemistry. I agree that the whole sentence is better omitted. Richard New Forest (talk) 10:49, 4 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The

OED says a heath is "an area of open uncultivated ground esp. on acid sandy or peaty soil and covered by heather or related plants". For moor the first definition is very similar: "An open area of uncultivated land esp. an area covered with heather etc.; a heath" but the two alternative definitions are: "A marsh or fen:Dialect and US" and "The soil of which moorland consists: Scottish and dialect" I think the main problem is that the terms heathland and moorland are fairly interchangeable in the UK. For instance Kersal Moor in the north of England has an maximum elevation of 23 metres so it hardly fits in with the 'high-ground heaths' definition. It also has mostly well-drained sandy soil with some areas of peaty soil - like Hampstead Heath (which rises to 134 metres). But as the area is surrounded by moorland on the Pennines it has always been called a moor because it's covered with heather and moorland-type plants. It does, however, also have lots of mosses in the damper areas. Also if you look at the Somerset Levels article the moors there (and there were a lot of them see:[1]) are on low-lying land but ware characterised by having peaty soil. The moorland article does deal with this conflict of definitions a little better, although it's not clear if that bit is supported by references and the article is otherwise generally pretty poor. It would appear that, in the UK, moors are generally places with peaty soil and heaths are places with sandy soil. Richerman (talk) 12:51, 4 October 2013 (UTC)[reply

]

Natural England is useful. J3Mrs (talk) 16:29, 4 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

That's interesting - they also have a page on upland heath here where they say upland heath is commonly referred to as moorland. I'm beginning to wonder why we have separate articles for them. Richerman (talk) 17:00, 4 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

And there's more, [2]. J3Mrs (talk) 17:32, 4 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 2 external links on Heath. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

• Added archive https://archive.is/20131004094204/http://www.lifeonland.org.uk/heath%20and%20moorland/index.htm to http://www.lifeonland.org.uk/heath%20and%20moorland/index.htm
• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20051202151307/http://www.countryside.gov.uk/WiderWelcome/NCAF/NCAF4_4.asp to http://www.countryside.gov.uk/WiderWelcome/NCAF/NCAF4_4.asp

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

This message was posted before February 2018.

• If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
• If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 00:40, 1 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

i have removed the statement that the honey possum is the world's "only nectar feeding mammal." Just for a start, many bats eat nectar as well.Wikigreenwood (talk) 05:00, 25 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]