Human traces in the bryophyte flora of the summit region of Karkonosze Mts (Polish side)

Abstract

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.