Comparative ecology of vascular plant, bryophyte and testate amoeba communities in four Sphagnum peatlands along an altitudinal gradient in Switzerland

Our study showed that a limited list of ten easily identifiable testate amoeba taxa have higher bioindication value than the full bryophytes and vascular plants. Furthermore, testate amoebae can be analyzed on samples collected at any season (accessibility allowing and if precise sampling sites are well marked) - a clear advantage for biomonitoring and can be used to infer past changes from the peat record at the same taxonomic resolution. This simple approach could therefore be very useful for biomonitoring of peatlands.