Natural Heritages of The Black Sea Alpine: Agaçbaşı, Barma and Yılantas high Altitude peatlands, Nature Protected Areas, Trabzon, Turkey

Turkiye's largest high plateau peatlands, Trabzon peatlands are located in the Northeast part of Turkey, on the ridges and slopes of the hills of the Soğanlı Mountains which is one of the southwestern Caucasian mountain ranges. Within the scope of this study, the geographical, climatic and ecological characteristics that provide the formation of peatlands and make the protection of peatlands important have been determined and examined. The mountainous region's climate is subtropical-Subpolar, with humid-cold climate characteristics and receives a high level of precipitation (nearly 2000 mm/y). Ağaçbaşı and Barma are the largest high plateau peatlands in the region and Turkey, one of the important natural heritage on a global scale due to their location and ecological features on the southern border of the northern hemisphere. Peatlands thicknesses vary from 50-450cm. In the region nearly 200ha of peatland-covered areas are. High plateau peatlands have ombrotrophic characteristics in which water and plant nutrients are provided only by precipitations for forming the swamps, there is no water inlet from the outside, such as streams, etc. Peatlands formed during the Holocene period after the last ice age, and have a rich archive in terms of about 8-10 thousand years old ecological and climatological data. They have several flora and fauna species that are extremely rare in Türkiye. Ağaçbaşı (2019), Barma (2019) and Yılantaş (2023) plateaus, which include peatlands, have been registered as protected natural sites and 2561Ha are taken under protection. Due to rare features, peatlands protection should be made sustainable with absolute public-state cooperation.