Wildlife and plants

A number of factors affect the diversity of animal life in any habitat, including:

• the availability of food
• shelter
• the presence of predators
• tolerance to physical conditions

The wet conditions characteristic of peatlands are unfavourable for certain animal groups, but provide ideal conditions for others, especially those with an aquatic phase in their life cycle. The limited range of bog plants limits the diversity of plant-eating animals (herbivores), while the lack of nutrients such as calcium can limit the amount of vertebrates and shelled molluscs. In general, the presence of many vertebrates on peatlands is often opportunistic or temporary. Invertebrates such as beetles, moths and dragonflies are better adapted to the conditions and many are resident throughout the year. All peatland animals are linked by food chains and food webs.

The pages on peatland wildlife give information about some of the major groups of animals and the most common species in Northern Ireland peatlands.

The environmental conditions in peatlands can limit the growth and survival of many plant species. Fens and bogs are wet habitats with limited oxygen available for plant growth. Bog plants also have to deal with acidic soil and the lack of essential nutrients including nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. The plants that are found growing on peatlands have developed a variety of adaptations that allow them to survive in these harsh conditions. There is little direct competition between peatland plants because different species have developed different adaptations for survival e.g the roots of the Heather plant form an association with fungi in order to obtain essential nutrients while sundews eat insects to obtain these nutrients.

There is considerable variation in the environmental conditions, such as temperature and moisture, found within a single peatland site. Different parts of a site can therefore have quite different communities of plants e.g. some species of Sphagnum moss are only found within pools while others have adapted to life on the drier hummocks. Although some plant species are confined to peatlands it is often the communities of plants that are unique. Peatlands are now some of the richest areas of natural vegetation remaining in Ireland. Click on the links below for further information about

• Bog and Fen plants
• Fungi
• Trees
• Rare Peatland plants