Tyler, T. 2005. The Bryophyte flora of
Scanian sand-steppe vegetation and its relation to soil pH and phosphate
availability. – Lindbergia 30: 11-20.
The sand-steppe is a vegetation type
mainly found in the southern Baltic region on calcareous sand dominated by
vascular plants such as Koeleria glauca,
Dianthus arenarius ssp. arenarius and Astragalus arenarius.
Eighty-eight plots representing most sand-steppe sites in Scania, southernmost
Sweden, were analyzed with respect to bryophytes, pH and exchangeable phosphate
in the topsoil. The most common species were Syntrichia ruraliformis, Hypnum lacunosum, Ceratodon
purpureus, Brachythecium albicans, Bryum argenteum, Syntrichia
ruralis and Racomitrium canescens, but several rare or red-listed taxa were also found. Total species
richness was reduced in plots with subneutral topsoil but uniformly high in
plots with alkaline topsoil. In these latter, however, concentrations of
exchangeable phosphate were found to have a major effect on the bryophyte flora.
A significant negative relationship between total species richness and
phosphate concentrations was found and most rare species were restricted to, or
most frequent in plots with low phosphate availability. Only a few common
generalist taxa appeared favoured by high phosphate availability. These
findings suggest that management intended to conserve the sand-steppe
vegetation should be designed to keep availability of phosphate low. Mechanical
soil disturbance should be favoured over heavy grazing and burning.