Abstract
The environmental conditions that allow the persistence of peatland ecosystems (waterlogged, acidic and nutrient poor) makes them unsuitable habitats for many soil plant and animal species. However, a wide range of specialised soil invertebrates find these peaty soils to be the perfect home to feed, grow and reproduce, converting these ecosystems into unique environments in terms of composition and structure of their soil communities. Among them, enchytreids (Oligochaetes) are usually dominant in terms of biomass, whereas microarthropods (e.g., mites, collembolans, small insects), despite their numerical abundance, represent 3% of the total biomass. Since these ecosystems are extremely vulnerable to climatic and anthropogenic changes (e.g., conversion to agricultural land), more comprehensive protection measures should be implemented to ensure the preservation of its soil biodiversity.
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Acknowledgements
This work was jointly funded under two projects: CICYT research grant (Ref. REN2002-03224/GLO) and MINECO research grant (Ref. CGL2014-54861-R).
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Briones, M.J.I., Ferradás, I. (2023). Soil Biodiversity in Galician Peatlands: A Unique Home for Specialised Invertebrates. In: Núñez-Delgado, A., Álvarez-Rodríguez, E., Fernández-Calviño, D. (eds) The Environment in Galicia: A Book of Images. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-33114-5_12
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