"Emil Racoviţă" Institute of Speleology of Romanian Academy of Science, Bucharest, Romania.
Ovidius University Constanţa, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, Constanţa, Romania.
Environ Entomol. 2023 Apr 18;52(2):217-229. doi: 10.1093/ee/nvad004.
Although natural peatlands have been recognized as an important type of wetlands because they support high biodiversity and provide important ecosystem services, the value of peatlands both in biodiversity research and conservation is still largely underestimated. Our study characterizes the biodiversity and conservation value of Peşteana peat bog, an upland mesotrophic peat bog, located in the Southern Carpathians, Romania. More specifically, we: (1) characterized the invertebrate (i.e., top soil, surface litter, and plant-dwelling) and plant communities along a humidity gradient in Peşteana peat bog and nearby habitats (i.e., treeline, ecotone, lowland and highland meadow, and forest), (2) assessed the main environmental factors driving the invertebrate community diversity and composition, and (3) determined the relationship between invertebrate community diversity and vegetation, focusing on the top soil invertebrates. Our study revealed a high diversity of invertebrates spanning over 43 taxonomic groups and a high number of plant indicator species, emphasizing the role of natural peatlands in preserving diverse communities in a small area. The results showed that the composition of top soil invertebrate community was determined by depth of organic layer, vegetation cover, and soil compaction. We found that the diversity of top soil invertebrate community was strongly influenced by habitat type and soil attributes and weakly by vegetation. Overall, the invertebrate and plant communities showed different responses to habitat conditions along the humidity gradient. This highlights the importance of using a multi-community approach to support the design of effective conservation and management actions beneficial for a wide range of taxa.
虽然天然泥炭地因其支持高生物多样性和提供重要生态系统服务而被认为是一种重要的湿地类型，但泥炭地在生物多样性研究和保护方面的价值仍然在很大程度上被低估。我们的研究描述了位于罗马尼亚南部喀尔巴阡山脉的 Peşteana 泥炭沼泽的生物多样性和保护价值。更具体地说，我们：(1) 描述了 Peşteana 泥炭沼泽及其附近栖息地（林线、生态交错带、低地和高地草地以及森林）中沿湿度梯度的无脊椎动物（即表土、地表凋落物和植物栖息的无脊椎动物）和植物群落；(2) 评估了驱动无脊椎动物群落多样性和组成的主要环境因素；(3) 确定了无脊椎动物群落多样性与植被之间的关系，重点关注表土无脊椎动物。我们的研究揭示了无脊椎动物的高度多样性，跨越了 43 个分类群，以及大量的植物指示物种，强调了天然泥炭地在小面积内保护多样社区的作用。结果表明，表土无脊椎动物群落的组成由有机层深度、植被覆盖和土壤压实决定。我们发现，表土无脊椎动物群落的多样性受到栖息地类型和土壤属性的强烈影响，而受植被的影响较弱。总体而言，无脊椎动物和植物群落对湿度梯度上的栖息地条件表现出不同的响应。这强调了使用多群落方法来支持设计有利于广泛分类群的有效保护和管理行动的重要性。
