The Plateau des Tourbières (in English the Plateau of Bogs) comprises the highest upland region of Amsterdam Island

Île Amsterdam

New Amsterdam, Amsterdam Island, or Île Amsterdam is a French island in the Indian Ocean located at . It is part of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands.- History :...

, a small French territory in the southern Indian Ocean

Indian Ocean

The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...

. Over 500 m above sea level, it contains the island’s highest peaks: Mont de la Dives (881 m), Grande Marmite (742 m) and Mont Fernand (731 m). It is the only breeding site in the world for the critically endangered

Critically Endangered

Critically Endangered is the highest risk category assigned by the IUCN Red List for wild species. Critically Endangered means that a species' numbers have decreased, or will decrease, by 80% within three generations....

 Amsterdam Albatross

Amsterdam Albatross

The Amsterdam Albatross or Amsterdam Island Albatross, Diomedea amsterdamensis, is a huge albatross which breeds only on Amsterdam Island in the southern Indian Ocean. It was only described in 1983, and was thought by some researchers to be a sub-species of the Wandering Albatross, exulans...

, with some 24 to 31 pairs nesting there annually.

Vegetation

The lower-lying areas of the island were mainly covered by a woodland of Phylica arborea

Phylica arborea

Phylica arborea, also known as the Island Cape Myrtle, is a shrub or small tree with narrow needle-like dark green leaves, downy silver on the underside, and with greenish white terminal flowers. Usually a shrub or procumbent tree, it may reach 6–7 m in height in sheltered locations...

trees mixed with fern

Fern

A fern is any one of a group of about 12,000 species of plants belonging to the botanical group known as Pteridophyta. Unlike mosses, they have xylem and phloem . They have stems, leaves, and roots like other vascular plants...

s before the vegetation was devastated by a combination of wood-cutting, anthropogenic

Anthropogenic

Human impact on the environment or anthropogenic impact on the environment includes impacts on biophysical environments, biodiversity and other resources. The term anthropogenic designates an effect or object resulting from human activity. The term was first used in the technical sense by Russian...

 wildfire

Wildfire

A wildfire is any uncontrolled fire in combustible vegetation that occurs in the countryside or a wilderness area. Other names such as brush fire, bushfire, forest fire, desert fire, grass fire, hill fire, squirrel fire, vegetation fire, veldfire, and wilkjjofire may be used to describe the same...

 and grazing

Grazing

Grazing generally describes a type of feeding, in which a herbivore feeds on plants , and also on other multicellular autotrophs...

 by feral cattle

Amsterdam Island Cattle

Amsterdam Island Cattle are a feral breed of wild cattle that has existed in isolation on Amsterdam Island, a small French territory in the southern Indian Ocean, since 1871.-History:...

, and became replaced by exotic grassland. The vegetation of the plateau, however, was not grazed by the cattle and remains in a largely natural state, consisting mainly of sphagnum

Sphagnum

Sphagnum is a genus of between 151 and 350 species of mosses commonly called peat moss, due to its prevalence in peat bogs and mires. A distinction is made between sphagnum moss, the live moss growing on top of a peat bog on one hand, and sphagnum peat moss or sphagnum peat on the other, the...

 bog

Bog

A bog, quagmire or mire is a wetland that accumulates acidic peat, a deposit of dead plant material—often mosses or, in Arctic climates, lichens....

s and moss

Moss

Mosses are small, soft plants that are typically 1–10 cm tall, though some species are much larger. They commonly grow close together in clumps or mats in damp or shady locations. They do not have flowers or seeds, and their simple leaves cover the thin wiry stems...

es, with the dwarf shrub Acaena magellanica

Acaena magellanica

Acaena magellanica, commonly called Buzzy Burr or Greater Burnet , is a species of flowering plant whose range includes southern South America and many subantarctic islands....

.