Environmental drivers of ground-floor bryophytes diversity in temperate forests.
Oecologia
; 202(2): 275-285, 2023 Jun.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-37266587
ABSTRACT
Bryophytes play important role in forest ecosystem functioning and their distribution and diversity are driven by numerous environmental factors. The aim of the present study was to bring new insights in deeper understanding of terrestrial bryophytes diversity in temperate forests, as well as to determine the environmental factors which have predominant influence on ground-floor bryophytes. The survey was conducted in Fruska Gora Mountain (Serbia) across seven forest sites where ground-bryophytes were sampled. Soil moisture, temperature, and pH were measured as soil characteristics, while herbaceous cover, litter cover, stream distance, number of trees and shrubs were used as characteristics of stand structure. Species richness, Shannon diversity index, and evenness index were used as diversity measures. Generalised linear model and canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) were used to test the influence of environmental variables on bryophyte diversity. Litter cover was the most important explanatory variable, followed by soil moisture, stream distance and tree number, respectively. Overall, the stand structure was found to have a greater impact on ground-floor bryophyte diversity compared to soil characteristics. Identification of the most significant ecological factors affecting the diversity and distribution of bryophytes in forest ecosystems is of great importance in forest ecology with the aim of defining adequate management methods to preserve the biodiversity of forests, with particular emphasis on endangered and rare bryophyte species.
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Texto completo:
1
Colección:
01-internacional
Base de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Ecosistema
/
Briófitas
Tipo de estudio:
Prognostic_studies
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Oecologia
Año:
2023
Tipo del documento:
Article