A unified explanation for the morphology of raised peatlands.

Raised peatlands, or bogs, are gently mounded landforms that are composed entirely of organic matter and store the most carbon per area of any terrestrial ecosystem. The shapes of bogs are critically important because their domed morphology accounts for much of the carbon that bogs store and determines how they will respond to interventions to stop greenhouse gas emissions and fires after anthropogenic drainage. However, a general theory to infer the morphology of bogs is still lacking.