Student intern: Jessica Westworth (Sustainable Development)
Supervisors: Althea Davies (School of Geography and Sustainable Development), Iain Matthews (School of Biology), Katy Roucoux (School of Geography and Sustainable Development)
Peatlands are distinct ecosystems that have been degraded by a variety of land uses, compromising their hydrology and ecology. The aim of this study was to compare the invertebrate and vegetation assemblages as well as the diversity within bog habitats under a variety of land uses: bog that is currently supporting conifer plantations, bog that has been naturally colonised by trees after severe degradation, and bog being progressively restored. To achieve this, sampling was performed across Portmoak Moss, a raised bog, in areas with varying degradation. This study characterized the invertebrate and vegetation diversity, as well as compositional differences found at each site, to establish a baseline across areas of differing land management. A total of 2882 invertebrate individuals were collected from 30 pitfall traps. Additionally, a ground vegetation survey was completed around a 1-metersquared area of each of the trap sites. The results indicated significant differences in invertebrate and vegetation composition between each bog state, as well as a unique set of bog species within the restored habitat with low overall diversity and abundance of invertebrates and high ground vegetation diversity. Afforested areas were revealed to have similar ground vegetation and higher invertebrate abundances. This study finds that the restored bog areas are the most ecologically important area across the study site as they support distinct assemblages not located anywhere else on site. This highlights the importance of maintaining the restored bog area and re-establishing suitable hydrological conditions to sustain ongoing restoration efforts. These findings contribute to the growing body of environmental data collected at Portmoak Moss and will help to inform future monitoring and management practices of the site.
