Volume 24 (2019) Article 5
Thirty years of vegetation dynamics in the Rospuda fen (NE Poland)
by E. Jablonska, P. Pawlikowski, F. Jarzombkowski, M. Tarapata and S. Klosowski
Published online: 31.03.2019
Summary
Little is known about the vegetation dynamics of fens, and especially of hydrologically undisturbed examples. We described the vegetation of an undisturbed mesotrophic rich fen (percolation mire) in 2006–2008 and 2016 and compared our results with vegetation records from the 1980s to identify any longer-term changes. Eight vegetation types were distinguished. On the whole, the vegetation of the mire has remained very stable throughout the last 30 years. However, detailed comparisons of permanent plots recorded twice in the last ten years indicated an expansion of shrubs in patches of Sphagnum - small sedge vegetation. There were also several less prominent changes in the abundance of particular species in other mire vegetation types: (1) an increase of sedges, reeds and Calliergonella cuspidata at the expense of rich-fen moss species in communities of brown moss - small sedge; (2) a change in composition of the moss layer in pine - birch fen woodland; (3) an increase of reedbed species and reduced Alnus glutinosa abundance in flooded riparian alder woodland; and (4) a decline of wetland herbs and mosses in alder spring fen woodland at the edges of the valley.
Supplementary material
Citation
Jablonska, E., Pawlikowski, P., Jarzombkowski, F., Tarapata, M. & Klosowski, S. (2019) Thirty years of vegetation dynamics in the Rospuda fen (NE Poland). Mires and Peat, 24(05), 1–23. (Online: http://www.mires-and-peat.net/pages/volumes/map24/map2405.php); doi:
10.19189/MaP.2018.OMB.363
Reviewers
IMCG and IPS
acknowledge
the work of the reviewers.
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