Phytogeography of the bryophytes of sugar maple forests in Gaspe Peninsula, Quebec

Favreau, Marc (1987) Phytogeography of the bryophytes of sugar maple forests in Gaspe Peninsula, Quebec. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

In the Gaspé Peninsula of Québec, forests dominated by sugar maple, Acer saccharum Marsh, occur as discrete patches within the predominant coniferous forest, and form a northern limit of the North American Deciduous Forest Biome. Extensive field studies at six of these stands revealed a bryophyte vegetation similar to that of more continuous sugar maple forests located in southernmost Quebec. -- The bryophyte flora of the study sites includes 96 moss and 18 liverwort species. Four North American distribution groups were defined, based on the overlapping limits of the Boreal Forest Biome and the Deciduous Forest Biome. Azonal species (widespread in both biomes) make up 32% of the flora, and grow mainly on mineral substrates. Boreal species comprise 34% of the flora, and about half of these grow on rotting wood and humus. Temperate species (25% of the flora) include a large proportion of epiphytes, and many species that are endemic to eastern North America. Ecotonal species, with just 9% of the flora, represent a heterogeneous group of bryophytes, restricted in eastern North America to the overlap zone of the two biomes. Abundance, frequency between sites, and fertility do not differ significantly between the distribution groups. -- Even at the northern limit of the Deciduous Forest Biome, Gaspé sugar maple forests provide suitable habitats for many bryophyte species characteristic of the Biome; a few of these species reach their northern limit in the Gaspé. However, the bryophyte flora includes an even larger number of species of boreal affinity, or indifferent to the biomes.

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