Differences in richness of vascular plants, mosses, and liverworts in southern Norwegian alpine vegetation

Methods

A stratified random sampling procedure was followed to select sample plots (4 m 2 ) from ecologically different homogeneous alpine vegetation stands. The data were analysed by Pearsson correlation analysis, regression analysis, stepwise regression analysis, principal correlation analysis (PCA), and redundancy analysis (RDA). Results : 210 vascular plants, 152 mosses and 89 liverworts were identified from 304 plots.

Humped (quadratic) responses were found for some species groups only in relation to date of snowmelt and total vascular plant cover. Vascular plant and moss richness were strongly positively correlated with soil richness. Conclusions : Richness of vascular plants and mosses, and mosses and liverworts, may be used as surrogates for one another in the alpine vegetation plots studied, but vascular plant richness cannot be used as a surrogate for liverwort richness.