Maujahn Moor

It is located a good two kilometres west of the town of Dannenberg between the villages of Thunpadel and Schmarsau in northeastern Lower Saxony.

The Maujahn Moor is protected from the Atlantic macroclimate of Lower Saxony by the presence of the eastern slopes of the East Hanoverian end moraines (also known as the Göhrde-Drawehn Hills) formed during the Saalian glaciation and the climate is therefore clearly sub-continental.

This terrain hollow was formed about 7000 years ago as a result of the collapse of a salt dome that was leached by underground groundwater action - exactly as happened to the Bullenkuhle in the district of Gifhorn.

Thanks to stratigraphic research of the bog carried out by Lesemann (1969), we know that, initially, a carr with a covering of peat moss developed on the valley bottom.

Even above ground the terrain shows the characteristic relief of a sinkhole: the eastern bog hollow is semi-circular and surrounded by steep walls up to 15 metres high, covered with oak and pine.

The rounded, oval, more or less treeless surface of the bog in the eastern sinkhole covers about 2 hectares (4.9 acres) and is classified as a 'living', i.e. growing, mesotrophic transition moor (Zwischenmoor or Übergangsmoor).

On the periphery is a strip of carr which is dominated by Grey Willow and Alder Buckthorn bushes as well as Downy Birch.

The western part of this waterlogged terrain is more fen-like (Niedermoor), with reed beds and tall herbaceous vegetation as well as birch and alder trees.

Any further succession into a true raised bog - with its surface bulging noticeably in the middle, from which the groundwater has fully retreated and which is only fed by rainwater, is not expected.

This may be put down to its orographic situation, particularly the kettle hole formation, as well as the very low annual precipitation in the area of well under 600 millimetres per year.

Like the majority of the few still remaining raised and transition bogs in North Germany, the Maujahn is threatened by drainage and changes in nutrient levels.

The reason for this intermittent loss of water is that there have been some particularly dry years (for example 2003: 435 mm/a in Lüchow) and the fact that drainage of the hollow southwest into Prissersche Bach valley by a ditch has not been fully prevented.

In addition the diffusion of nutrients from agriculture in the area (Abdrift) and atmospheric pollution (i.e. the deposition and mobilisation of nitrogen), particularly in central Europe, is a problem.

Due to its regional landscape uniqueness as a biotope and geotope and its importance as a habitat for numerous rare, plants and animals, the Maujahn has been declared a nature reserve (area: 37 hectares (91 acres)).