Human traces in the bryophyte flora of the summit region of Karkonosze Mts [Polish side]

Based on results of the bryofloristic investigations carried out in 2006 along tourist roads and around mountain chalets the problem of bryophyte response to the tourist utilization of the summit region of Karkonosze Mts is discussed here. The hypothesis that introduction of cement as building material might have caused the income and spread of subneutral or basiphilous ruderal species in that naturally acidic region was formulated and tested. In result 45 species were found, of which the majority do not occur in natural sites in the Karkonosze Mts. Among them 20 species are convinced to be highly hemerophilous. Most of the found species were eurytopic, only 14 prefered subneutral or basic substrata. Many of them produced sporogonia, what indicates high reproduction potential. It seems that the phenomenon of synanthropisation is limited mainly to places in which cement (as mortar or concrete) has been used. The list of bryophytes found around all the anthropogenic sites and along the tourist roads in the summit region of Polish part of the massif with brief characteristics of their ecological preferences has been included

Species and ecological diversity of bryophytes occurring on midforest roads in some forest nature reserves in Central Poland

The paper presents socio-ecological and ecological characterisation of 72 bryophyte species found in the years 2008-2012 on midforest roads passing through nine nature reserves situated in the Łódź region. Nine species occurred excl usively in this habitat. Most of the species noted (63%) were forest bryophytes occurring also inside the forest phytocoenoses studied, they constituted 95.5% of all the records. The non-forest species show diff erent socio-ecological relations: some of them occur typically on meadows or in grassy forest ecotones, others – in fens or bogs but there are also some pioneer bryophytes colonizing initial sites, both of natural and anthropogenic character. They diff er from the forest species occurring on midforest roads in their ecological demands regarding the habitat reaction (presence of subneutral species) and light (higher participation of heliophytes). Nine of them (13%) are considered to be synanthropic bryophytes. Details of the species occurrence are provided

Bryogeographical elements of moss flora in glacial cirques Sniezne Kotly [Karkonosze Mts.] and their threat

Based on geographical and ecological analysis of the present moss flora occurring in two contiguous glacial cirques Śnieżne Kotły (Western Karkonosze Mts.), the occurrence of 20 species representing arctic-alpine and subarctic-subalpine elements is discussed. The majority of (sub)arctic- (sub)alpine elements (70%) occurred sporadically or very rarely (no more than 5 records), which indicates their general threat. Nine historically recorded species of these geographic elements could not be retrieved during the recent survey, however four of the recently found species have not been found during the systematic survey of historical sites on the Czech, southern, side of Karkonosze Mts. This proves that the northern localization of Śnieżne Kotły cirques favours the survival of relict species. The question of relictness with respect to the Düll's phytogeographical characterization is discussed; only in ten of the (sub)arctic- (sub)alpine species the relict character could be considered as granted due to their present distribution range. The full list of the Śnieżne Kotły present moss flora with the brief characteristics of their ecological distribution has been included, first such attempt since 1930