Habitat heterogeneity stimulates regeneration of bryophytes and vascular plants on disturbed minerotrophic peatlands

Abstract

Wooded rich fens (WRF), characterized by high variation in surface topography and numerous plant species organized along microtopographic gradients, are abundant in continental western Canada. In regions where in situ oil sands exploration (OSE) prevails, however, winter operations eliminate the surface vegetation and mechanically flatten the exposed peat. This results in saturated or flooded soils during the growing season and eliminates plant species dependent on naturally elevated microhabitats, with implications for peatland recovery. In northeastern Alberta, we redeveloped hummock topography on replicate WRF after OSE by extracting blocks of frozen peat from peatland surfaces in the winter. Peat mounds and adjacent unmounded flattened areas were left to regenerate naturally and were sampled four to five summers later. Mounds facilitated the colonization of many peatland plants not adapted to waterlogged soils. For bryophytes, mean richness and diversity of liverworts, Sphagnum, and true mosses were higher in mounded plots than in unmounded plots. For vascular plants, woody plants (trees and shrubs) had higher richness, cover, and diversity (trees only) in mounded plots. Peat mounding may be effective for stimulating vegetation development on OSE-degraded WRF. All mounds, however, will require lateral expansion by hummock-forming mosses to provide the habitat volume required for development of large woody plants.