ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Research of Different Types of Peatbogs:
Relationships of Bioceonosis Structures
and Physico-Chemical Parameters
Tomasz Mieczan, Monika Tarkowska-Kukuryk, Małgorzata Adamczuk,
Wojciech Pęczuła, Andrzej Demetraki-Paleolog, Michał Niedźwiecki
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Department of Hydrobiology, University of Life Sciences,
Dobrzańskiego 37, 20-262 Lublin, Poland
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2015;24(1):191-198
KEYWORDS
ABSTRACT
The majority of ecological research on the food web has so far focused more on sea and lake ecosystems
than on peatbog habitats. The primary objectives of this paper were to analyze the protozoa, metazoa,
and macroinvertebrate assemblages in different types of peatbogs, and to assess the influence of potential
predators on protozoa communities. Sampling was done in six peatbogs from May to October 2012 in a transect
including lagg and open peatbog. The results of DCA analysis showed that Axis and Axis 2 explained
49.8% of the total variance in composition of studied zoocenosis. The distribution of samples in ordination
space led us to conclude that studied habitats are distributed along the falling gradient of water level and rising
gradient of total organic carbon and nitrate nitrogen. Nevertheless, the number of significant correlations
between the main groups of organisms forming the food web was different among sites, and in highmoore
peatbogs the relationships between food web components were the strongest.