Popov, S.Yu. The climatic patterning of Sphagnum
sect. Sphagnum species distribution in the East
European Plain
Arctoa (2016) 25: 332–352
doi: 10.15298/arctoa.25.26
The purpose of
this research is to correlate
distribution of Sphagnum species with local climatic
factors in the East European
Plain. Six species of Sphagnum
from section Sphagnum, i.e., S. magellanicum, S. centrale, S. palustre, S. papillosum, S. austinii, and S. affine were selected. The graded
data on their
abundance and the species number
for 138 localities were mapped into
unit squares of 10´10 km by using GRID coverage,
to construct several delineated zones of occurence/abundance. For analysis, the matrix
was augmented by extended data from
the BIOCLIM database. Regression analysis revealed strong correlation between species distribution and temperature, while abundance of the
species showed high correlation with maximum relative
humidity in two months, August
and September, being especially high for most
common species, S. magellanicum (0.85 and 0.83) and S. centrale (0.81 и
0.76). Distribution area of Sphagnum palustre is restricted by precipitation in the whole
warm part of the year,
while Sphagnum papillosum avoids regions with low
relative humidity in early summer.
The local number of species
correlates with relative humidity in summer. The
developed technique demonstrates a possible way of
applying the climatic data to
the analysis of the bryophyte
distribution in extensive territories.