Efecte de les variables ambientals i hidrològiques sobre la riquesa i distribució dels briòfits fontinals a la Catalunya oriental

Abstract

Bryophytes have biological traits that make them some of the most sensitive indicators of environmental change. Springs have a significant presence of bryophytes and hence they are ideal habitats for studying their relationship with the environment. We tested whether bryophyte species richness and distribution can be predicted with macroecological variables (i.e., climate, altitude, water pH and conductivity) sampling bryophytes from 198 springs distributed along montane regions in NE Iberian Peninsula. Regressions were used to relate species richness with selected environmental variables. A PCA analysis was performed to reduce the environmental variables to three principal coordinates. We tested the influence of environmental variables and PCA axis on species distribution using ANOVAs. Our results suggest that species richness is related to mean annual precipitation, water pH and altitude. However, total variance explained by the model is low (<10 %) suggesting other variables should be considered for a better understanding of bryophyte richness. Our results also show that bryophyte species distribution can be predicted using mean annual temperature and precipitation, altitude and water conductivity. The results obtained by the present study will be useful to improve predictions on species distribution using simple and easy to obtain variables such as climate, water pH and conductivity.