Abstract
Anthropogenic transformations of habitat conditions in moderate climate peatlands frequently cause a decrease in the number of sites of occurrence and the size of the population of many valuable plant species, including the boreal relic Betula humilis. The objective of this paper was an attempt to relate the specifics of the occurrence of the glacial relic Betula humilis in the peatlands of Central-Eastern Poland, which developed under moderate climate conditions, to the conditions of the natural environment identified through research into the physical and chemical parameters of the groundwater, as well as botanical research into its habitat. The study results confirm that shrub birch has a broad range of ecological tolerance to the majority of the studied factors and can therefore be an indicator of habitat transformation. Important environmental factors affecting its abundance are water relations and the contribution of calcium hydroxide and phosphorus fractions. A condition favouring the proper functioning of individuals of the studied species is TP values lower than other obtained values, in the following range: 0.08–0.32; P-PO4: 0.1; TN: 2.2–21.2; N-NH4: 0.1–0.46; DOC: 24.6–55.9 (mg·dm−3), as well as higher than average pH values, in the following range: 5.34–5.95; Ca: 5.67–28.1; Mg: 0.56–2.41 (mg·dm−3) and EC: 72.1–142.3 (µS·cm−1).
Highlights
Specific peatland ecosystems develop only in the moderate climate zone of the NorthernHemisphere in climate conditions that determine considerable plant production, and that are unfavourable to the processes of decomposition of plant remains
The character of the research covers a number of different dependencies, e.g., susceptibility to extinction of small isolated populations [42]; the heterogeneity of habitats and their effect on species the extinction of small isolated populations [42]; the heterogeneity of habitats and their effect on richness, and the effect of the fragmentation of anthropogenic habitats on the number and state of rare species richness, and the effect of the fragmentation of anthropogenic habitats on the number and plant species [14]; or the analysis of habitat indices with respect to attempts to actively protect such state of rare plant species [14]; or the analysis of habitat indices with respect to attempts to actively species [8,9]
Among 418 species of vascular plants endangered in Poland, 55 (13%) are peatland plants, including Pleistocene boreal relics [26]
Summary
Specific peatland ecosystems develop only in the moderate climate zone of the NorthernHemisphere in climate conditions that determine considerable plant production, and that are unfavourable to the processes of decomposition of plant remains. Peatland flora plays an important role in the development of species biodiversity, in the central part of East Poland, where relatively large and typologically varied peatlands occur, subject to low human pressure, in moderate climate conditions with strong continentalism [2]. In spite of numerous morphological, anatomical, physiological, and ecological adaptations permitting their survival in often extreme environmental conditions [3,10,11,12], the rate of environmental transformations related to the fluctuations of the moderate climate and progressing human pressure are occurring too fast for the species. Whereas fluctuations of climatic factors indirectly result from human activity, which narrows the range of ecological valency of many species, direct anthropogenic landscape transformations in the environment result in the fragmentation of many valuable natural habitats, changing the abiotic and biocoenotic environmental conditions [13,14]
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