Faddan More Psalter used as a liner to stiffen the cover somewhat. Low oxygen levels in the bog provide unusual preservation conditions, and bogs were often used by Irish monks as hiding places for valuables in the face of Viking raids. In addition to low oxygen levels, sphagnum moss, of which the peat bog is composed, produces an antibiotic substance called sphagnan that binds with proteins on the surface of microorganisms, immobilising them. Its highly reactive carbonyl groups can alter chemicals and nutrients that would otherwise decompose organic matter. And above all the sphagnum moss causes organic material to undergo chemical changes itself
Abbotts Moss Nature Reserve quaking bog occurs when plants such as "Sphagnum" mosses and cotton grass "Eriophorum" sp. colonise the surface of a waterbody and form a floating mat of vegetation. Locally uncommon plants growing here include common cottongrass "Eriophorum angustifolium", cranberry "Vaccinium oxycoccos", round-leaved sundew "Drosera rotundifolia", crowberry "Empetrum nigrum", hare’s-tail cottongrass "Eriophorum vaginatum", bog rosemary "Andromeda polifolia", white beak-sedge "Rhynchospora alba" and the carnivorous lesser bladderwort "Utricularia minor". Dragonflies include the nationally rare white-faced darter "Leucorrhinia dubia" and the locally uncommon downy emerald "Cordulia aenea" and black darter "Sympetrum danae". Abbotts Moss is one of only two sites in Cheshire where adders