Tests on moorlands water levels

The moorland acts like a sponge soaking up rainfall

Volunteer rangers are drilling hundreds of test pits in the Peak District moorland as part of a climate change research campaign.

The rangers are measuring the water table to see if the sensitive moorlands are drying out.

The Moors for the Future Partnership project will help to determine if moorland restoration plans are working.

Statistics from the nine-month project will be also be used for research on flooding.

£20,000 grant

"We want to find out the water levels and then we will compare the figures to past research results," a spokesman for the Peak District National Park said.

The park authority is also working to replant and restore parts of the moorland damaged by fire, overgrazing and erosion.

The restoration work will ensure the moorland is still working "like a sponge" to soak up rainfall and prevent run-off that causes flooding.

The water table measurement project, supported by the Moors for the Future Partnership, Environment Agency and University of Manchester, will centre on the Bleaklow and Kinder Scout areas of Derbyshire.

The national park volunteer rangers will install more than 400 dip wells - instruments buried in the ground to measure the depth from the ground surface to the water table.

The rangers will return every month to collect data.

The project is supported by £20,000 from the Environment Agency.