An important parameter of organic matter in soils, peat, and fossil-carbon-containing deposits is their decomposition degree, which describes their transformation intensity—the humification degree of original living organic matter. In this article approaches to the analysis of humification degree are thoroughly described and14C dated peat columns extracted from several bogs in Latvia are investigated and compared. A new humification indicator is suggested: the ratio of the total amount of organic matter in peat in respect to the amount of humic substances.
