Studies On Flora And Ecology Of Sacicolous Mosses In Beishan, Jinhua, Zhejiang Province

Saxicolous mosses have played significant roles in the composition of theworld bryophytes' diversity. Recent studies on bryophyte communities aremainly focused on the description of diversity, the relationship betweendiversity and environmental factors, attentions on the ecology including theinfluences from the environmental factors on saxicolous mosses have been alsopaid by bryologists from home and abroad. In the present paper, theinvestigations on flora and ecology of mosses in Jinhua, Zhejaing provinceincluding their composition of families, genera, their diversity, niche and therelationship between their distribution and environmental factors wereconducted. The main results concluded as follows:(1) Saxicolous mosses were sampled over different habitats of Beishan,Jinhua city, Zhejiang Province. 86 moss species from a subset of 167 quadrats in30 sites were recorded. The dominant families in species number are Pottiaceae(11 spp.), Brachytheciaceae (11 spp.), Thuidiaceae (10 spp.) and Hypnaceae (8spp.) and the dominant genera are Bryum (7 spp.) , Fissidens (7 spp.) andBrachythecium (6 spp.).(2) Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) based on the ecologicalimportant values of these 86 species and six environmental variables revealedthat the distribution of these saxicolous moss species is significantly related toaltitude, water availability and light intensity. Altitude is a primary determinant factor of vascular plant cover, which in turn affects light intensity, wateravailability, and therefore bryophyte distribution. The microtopography ofboulders also partly accounts for the distribution of saxicolous mosses in thisarea, while no distinct relationships were found between the inclination angle ofthe boulders and the distribution of the mosses.(3) Analyses on the niche breadth and overlaps on the 86 saxicolousmosses were conducted by the application of Levin's equation modified byCorwell for niche width and the Schoener's equation for niche overlap,revealing that: (A) Ceratodon purpureus, Fissidens nobilis, Bryum pallescens,Claopodium aciculum, Thuidiurn cymbifolium, Rhynchostegiella japonica,Entodon sullivantii et al. have wider niches more than 3, but most of them hadrather narrow niche breadth, therefore, the microhabitats protection is veryimportant in conservation of bryophytes; (B) among the overlaps of the 86species, most are below 0.1, accounting for 89.44% of the total, indicating thatmost bryophytes demanded different habitat conditions.(4) Diversity anayses based on the coverage of mosses showed thatShannon diversity indices of more than 95% samples were below 1.5,confirming that the diversity of most saxicolous mosses was not high. Analysesshowed that the streamside areas behind Jinhuaguan could be considered as thekey area for bryophyte conversation at Jinhua Beishan.(5) 14 moss species were found new to Zhejiang province such as Leskeascabrinervis, Fissidens adelphinus, Trichostomum involutum, Bryum clathratum, Claopodium rugulosifolium, Claopodium gracillimum, Claopodiummicrophyllum, Cyrto-hypnum gratum, Cratoneuron filicinum, Hygrohypnumluridum, var. subsphaericarpum, Rhynchostegiella japonica, Brachytheciumperminusculum, Entodon prorepens and Herzogiella perrobusta.Finally, for the saxicolous mosses in Jinhua, the possibility to build theconservation spot of moss diversity as well as moss tourism route were alsodiscussed and proposed.