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Investigating peatland invertebrates

An upland expanse of peat in the Forest of Bowland

Invertebrates are super sensitive to environmental changes, responding quickly to temperature, air quality, soil health and water quality. Dom Hartley from Lancashire Peat Partnership looks at how they can provide an indication of our peatland health.

Upland peatlands can support a huge variety of highly specialised invertebrates. They’re sensitive to environmental changes, responding quickly to temperature, air quality, soil health and water quality, and can provide a fast indicator of habitat condition within unique habitats such as upland peatlands. Lancashire Peat Partnership is working to study this further, alongside monitoring peatland recovery efforts and investigating modern DNA metabarcoding technology, thanks to a project devised by a local ecological consultancy and students.

Invertebrates play a key role in maintaining a healthy peatland ecosystem by breaking down and spreading plant litter, which contributes to the accumulation of peat. In this way, they may be playing a mitigating role on degraded peatlands, offsetting the rapid loss of peat from erosion which is a crucial issue. 

Sundew (Drosera rotundifolia), Westhay SWT reserve, Somerset Levels, Somerset, England, UK - Guy Edwardes/2020VISION

They’re also an important part of the food chain, especially for sundew, a species of tiny carnivorous plants that can thrive in the waterlogged, low nutrient and acidic conditions that a healthy bog provides and for various bird species that hunt across peatlands. 

A smooth ground beetle on a persons hand

The upland specialist, Smooth ground beetle (Carabus glabratus) 

Bowland Ecology approached the Forest of Bowland National Landscape Team in early 2024 with a proposal to investigate invertebrates on a recently restored peatland in the area. Working with a student from HAS, the University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands, entomologists from Bowland Ecology met with landowner United Utilities, Bowland's Peatland Officer and the RSPB to delve into the detail of the proposal, which involved studying ground beetles caught in pitfall traps. 

Volunteers on a peat bog installing pit traps

Survey participants install pitfall traps

Pitfall traps catch invertebrates as they make their way across the ground - traps are dug into the ground around 10 centimetres deep and are covered with a tight wire mesh to avoid anything larger than target invertebrate species falling in. A rain cover is then suspended just over the mesh to prevent the trap from filling up with rainwater. 

The traps contain a small amount of propylene glycol – this is a food-grade preservative and so presents no threat to the surrounding habitat, flora or fauna. This preserves any trapped invertebrates which can then be collected and studied. 

As well as monitoring peatland habitat and invertebrates, the study is also investigating the use of modern DNA metabarcoding technology for identifying large samples of invertebrates. 

DNA metabarcoding

DNA metabarcoding might sound like sci-fi, but involves the identified samples being sent to the lab, who then return a DNA report outlining the specific species present. This particular study aims to add to the growing area of research, with the hope that one day this becomes a reliable technique that can be rolled out across the industry. 

 

At the time of writing, all three sampling periods taken during summer 2024 have been traditionally identified by the entomologists. Only one sample has been returned from the lab, which unfortunately only identified down to the family level, either due to the DNA extracted not being a good enough quality, or due to the DNA database not having available matches. 
A green tiger beetle. it is iridescent green and goldish in colour

Green tiger beetle (Cicindela campestris) under the microscope

Results suggest that the site is of some importance to groups of specialist invertebrates, as well as supporting nationally scarce species, and with the right restoration efforts this site could restore specialist invertebrate communities or at least bolster remaining populations.

Whilst hydrology, vegetation, gas emissions and historic environment features are regularly surveyed and monitored for peatland restoration, the impact on invertebrates requires further study. This pilot survey in the Forest of Bowland will help us to better understand the wide variety of forces that contribute to the functioning of healthy peatlands across the county.  

Lancashire Peat Partnership would like to thank Lucy Pocock, Pieter van Zuylen and the wider Bowland Ecology team for designing, undertaking and reporting findings with regards to this project, as well as contributing valuable detail to this blog post. 

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