Soil and Climate - Soil: Reflections on the Basis of our Existence - page 125

The land that disappeared . The 1800s in Sweden saw large areas of peatland drained to increase
food production for a growing population. Draining and converting peatland to arable land leads
to subsidence as the peat layer shrinks and organic matter decomposes due to increased oxygen.
On B￤linge marsh north of Uppsala, the land has sunk almost 2 m in places since the marsh
was drained at the start of the last century. This corresponds to a couple of thousand tonnes of
lost carbon per hectare. In Sweden alone, close to three million hectares of wetlands have been
drained for forestry and agriculture