Effects of management and adjacent forest on the heathland bryophyte layer

Heathlands are severely threatened by decreasing habitat quantity and quality. In these habitats, bryophytes form an important component of plant diversity. Therefore, the aims of this study were to investigate the effects of management and adjacent forest land use on the heathland bryophyte layer. Furthermore, effects of these factors on invasive bryophyte species were studied. Bryophyte communities of 11 dry heathland patches bordering forest were surveyed. In these heathlands, management turned out to be an important factor explaining community composition of bryophytes. Furthermore, significant effects of adjacent land use on bryophyte community composition and species richness were found. However, these effects were rather limited in extent, occurring only close to habitat borders, i.e., up to maximum 5 m into the heathland patch. Also for individual bryophyte species, effects of adjacent forest could only be observed within maximum 5m from the edge. One remarkable edge effect was the increased dominance of the invasive species Campylopus introflexus near the forest edge, especially at grazed sites. Effects of adjacent land use seemed to predominate management effects. Consequently, management cannot serve as a tool to mitigate edge effects on bryophyte species in heathland patches. (C) 2007 Gesellschaft fur Okologie. Published by Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.