Relict occurrences of boreal brown-moss quaking rich fens in the Carpathians and adjacent territories
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2018 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Folia Geobotanica |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Web | http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12224-018-9318-3 |
| Doi | http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12224-018-9318-3 |
| Keywords | Classification; Macrofossil; Mires; Plant communities; Vegetation; Wetlands |
| Description | Quaking rich fens dominated by boreal semi-aquatic brown-mosses such as Scorpidium scorpioides and Calliergon trifarium are extremely rare in the Carpathians. These fens harbour endangered species persisting at few localities in the region. However, their phytosociological classification has not been sufficiently solved yet, because they lack Sphagnum species as well as calcicole species characteristic for the Caricion davallianae alliance. A recent pan-European synthesis on fen vegetation suggests that these fens belong to the Stygio-Caricion limosae alliance (boreal rich fen vegetation). The isolated occurrence of this alliance southward of the boreal zone and outside the Alps is rather exceptional and might represent a relict from an early post-glacial period. In this study, we compared phytosociological data for the Stygio-Caricion limosae alliance between Northern Europe and the Carpathians plus adjacent regions (the Bohemian Massif, the Dinaric Alps) using NMDS and cluster analysis. We found that the species composition of brown-moss quaking rich fens in Central and Southeastern Europe corresponds well with that in Northern Europe, confirming their assignment to Stygio-Caricion limosae. We further reconstructed the potential past distribution of the alliance in Czech Republic and Slovakia using available floristic and macrofossil data. Macrofossil data suggest that this vegetation type had been much more common in Central Europe and that today it persists only in ancient fens, showing the long-term stability of environmental conditions. The main causes of its present-day rarity are Middle-Holocene woodland phases in fens and recent water table decreases caused by anthropogenic deterioration of the water regime in the landscape. |
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