Bryophyte diversity in karst sinkholes affected by different degrees of human disturbance

Abstract

The diversity of bryophytes in karst sinkholes has received little attention, and these habitats probably play a crucial role as refugia. In this study, bryophyte diversity affected by different levels of human disturbance in five karst sinkholes was compared. A total of 132 species of bryophytes (17 liverworts and 115 mosses) that belong to 64 genera and 30 families were recorded. The richness of the bryophytes in the natural sinkholes was significantly higher than that of the bryophytes in the sinkholes affected by tourism and used as farmland. Canonical correspondence analysis showed that soil moisture is one of the most important factors that affect the abundance of bryophyte distribution in the five sinkholes. Human activities, including agriculture, animal husbandry, and tourism development, reduce the bryophyte coverage of sinkholes and lead to soil moisture loss. Therefore, effective protection of karst sinkholes is required to maintain their original value for biodiversity conservation.

Microclimate and habitat heterogeneity as important drivers of soil Collembola in a karst collapse doline in the temperate zone

“…Landscape microclimatic gradients also present particular opportunities for long‐term studies of biotic communities and are a proxy for global climate change (Badino, 2004; Bátori, Vojtkó, Keppel, et al, 2019; Mammola, Cardoso, et al, 2019; Raschmanová, Miklisová, et al, 2018); study of microclimatic gradients can provide potential predictions as to how a changing climate will affect the functional biodiversity of these ecosystems and how these responses may influence ecosystem functions. On the other hand, the cold stenothermic environments of karstic ecosystems harbor relatively stable habitats, considerably buffered from the regional environmental change and disturbance, and should be given priority attention in conservation activities (Bátori, Vojtkó, Keppel, et al, 2019; Chen et al, 2018; Gaál et al, 2015; Kováč, 2018; Liu et al, 2019; Mammola, Piano, et al, 2019; Perşoiu & Lauritzen, 2018; Yao et al, 2016).…”

Lampenflora as a result of karst cave equipment for excursions

“…Важность исследований входных зон пещер заключается в возможности диагностики возникновения и динамики экологических изменений, определения состояния соседних экосистем и предотвращения их нарушения в независимости от их природного или антропогенного характера [41]. Мониторинг карстовых природных систем особенно актуален для часто посещаемых экскурсионных пещер [66], расположенных на территориях ООПТ, в целях отслеживания состояния экосистем, объектами которых часто являются реликтовые виды живой природы [4].…”

Property Risk Assessment of Sinkhole Hazard in Louisiana, U.S.A

“…Linares et al (2017) found that drought facilitates sinkhole formation in some karst settings, including northeastern Spain. Most recently, biological manifestations of climate change in sinkholes have been shown for vascular plants (Bátori et al, 2014;Kiss et al, 2020), bryophytes (Liu et al, 2019), and forests (Yang et al, 2019).…”