Changes in the moss layer in Czech fens indicate early succession triggered by nutrient enrichment

0447875 - BÚ 2016 RIV CZ eng J - Journal Article
Hájek, M. - Jiroušek, M. - Navrátilová, Jana - Horodyská, E. - Peterka, T. - Plesková, Z. - Navrátil, J. - Hájková, Petra - Hájek, Tomáš
Changes in the moss layer in Czech fens indicate early succession triggered by nutrient enrichment.
Preslia. Roč. 87, č. 3 (2015), s. 279-301. ISSN 0032-7786. E-ISSN 0032-7786
R&D Projects: GA ČR GAP505/10/0638
Institutional support: RVO:67985939
Keywords : decline of threatened species * nutrients * vegetation change
Subject RIV: EF - Botanics
Impact factor: 2.711, year: 2015

Temperate fens are rapidly losing their specialized species. This applies even to seemingly untouched fens, in which the moss layer in particular is undergoing rapid succession.We analysed historical and recent vegetation-plot data from fens in the agricultural landscape on the Bohemian Massif (Czech Republic) to test the hypotheses that (i) more acidicolous and/or competitively stronger species that benefit from increased nutrient availability regionally increase in frequency and in percentage cover, and (ii) these competitively stronger bryophytes have become more tolerant of high pH because of the increased nutrient supply.We found that calcicolous brown mosses specialized for growing in fens have recently been retreating to places with the highest pH, being replaced by more nutrient-demanding species in most of rich fens. Sphagnum fallax and S. flexuosum spread only in poor fens. At the level of individual species, the intensity of change in species abundance correlated significantly with the median potassium concentration in the biomass of species. We conclude that nature conservancy authorities should monitor changes in the species composition of the moss layer as thismay signal the initial phase of nutrient enrichment of seemingly intact fens in agricultural landscapes.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0249654