A Multi-Community Approach in Biodiversity Assessment of a Peat Bog in the Southern Carpathians (Romania) and Implications for Conservation.

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 Pesteana 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 Pesteana 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.

Environmental determinants of the old oaks in wood-pastures from a changing traditional social-ecological system of Romania.

Large, old trees are keystone ecological structures, their decline having disproportional ecological consequences. There is virtually no information available regarding the status and occurrence of old trees in traditional cultural landscapes from Eastern Europe. In this study, we explore the environmental determinants of the old oaks found in wood-pastures from a changing traditional rural landscape from Central Romania. Both the old oaks and the wood-pastures harboring them have exceptional cultural, historical, and ecological values, yet are vulnerable to land-use change. We surveyed 41 wood-pastures from Southern Transylvania and counted the old oaks in them. We then related the number of old oaks from these wood-pastures to a set of local and landscape level variables related to wood-pastures. We found 490 old oaks in 25 wood-pastures. The number of old oaks was positively related to the size of the wood-pasture and the amount of pasture and forest around it (500 m buffer), and negatively related to the proximity of the village. Furthermore, we found a significant interaction between the effects of sheepfolds in the wood-pasture and the size of the wood-pasture on the number of old trees, indicating a negative influence of sheepfolds on the number of old trees in smaller sized wood-pastures. There is an increasing risk for losing old trees in the traditional cultural landscapes due to the lack of formal recognition of these trees. Therefore, while presenting the positive example of local initiatives and citizen science, we argue for an urgent development and implementation of conservation policies along with education strategies targeting the old trees and rural communities from the changing traditional cultural landscapes of Eastern Europe.