Plant–moth community relationships at the degraded urban peat-bog in Central Europe

Abstract

Peatlands have their own, specific insect fauna. They are a habitat not only for ubiquistic but also stenotopic moths that feed on plants limited to wet, acid and oligotrophic habitats. In the past, raised bogs and fens were widely distributed in Europe. This has changed since 20th c. Due to irrigation, modern forestry, and increasing human settlement, peatlands have become isolated islands in an agricultural and urban landscape. Here, we analyze the flora in a degraded bog situated in a large Lodz city agglomeration in Poland in relation to the diversity and composition of moth fauna. Over the last 40 years since the bog has become protected as a nature reserve, birch, willow, and alder shrubs replaced the typical raised bog plant communities due to the decreased water level. The analysis of moth communities sampled in 2012 and 2013 indicates dominance of ubiquistic taxa associated with deciduous wetland forests and rushes. Tyrphobiotic and tyrphophile moth taxa were not recorded. We conclude that the absence of moths typical of bog habitats and the dominance of common, woodland species are associated with hydrological changes, the expansion of trees and brushes over typical bog plant communities, and light pollution.