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.

Graphical Abstract