The Calciphilous Bryophytes of Three Limestone Sinks in Eastern Tennessee

Abstract

The calciphilous bryophyte vegetation of three limestone sinks in Sevier County, Tennessee, was quantitatively studied by line-intercept method. In an area of one and one-third acres, 63 species of bryophytes were encountered along transects. Sink profiles were constructed for use with transect data for map- ping calciphilous bryophyte distribution in microhabitats within sinks. The high floral diversity supported by localized climate of these sinks suggests that limestone sinks may be considered possible refugia for relict This paper is part of a bryo-ecological study of three limestone sinks in Sevier County, eastern Tennessee. The study was conducted in 1972 and 1973 to characterize unique nature of sink vegetation and effects imposed upon this vegetation by localized climate of sinks. The phytosociological aspects of calciphilous bryophyte com- ponents of sinks described qualitatively and quantitatively. Grout (1940) noted interesting of limestone sinks near Ocala, Florida. Breen (1953), in a discussion of tropical mosses restricted to limestone in Florida, found a striking correlation between occurrence of species of tropical affinities and pres- ence of limestone. Robinson and Wells (1956), in a survey of four limestone sinks in northern part of Alpena County, Michigan, collected 110 bryophyte Miller and Vitt (1970) added 15 additional species to bryophyte flora of same sinks. Redfearn (1957) used random plots to sample bryophyte vegetation of limestone outcrops in six different areas of central and northern Florida. He stated that moisture was the environmental factor that seems to control distribution of bryophytes, and other environmental factors had a secondary effect on distribution only inasmuch as they affected moisture conditions. Foote (1966) conducted a study of calciphilous cryptogams employing random quadrats over limestone outcrops in six counties of Driftless Area of southwestern Wisconsin. He concluded that of 91 species of cryptogams in quadrats, 40 species of bryophytes are restricted to moist limestone habitats in which Anomodon attenuatus and Platydictya confervoides were main species. Amann (1928), in Europe, concluded that mosses growing on limestone have an affinity for element calcium and can be designated as calciphiles, but very few mosses of siliceous substrates possess an affinity for elements in these latter substrates. Conse- quently he referred to mosses of siliceous substrates as calcifuges because of a pho- bie or apparent aversion to calcium. Amann considered 27.4% of Swiss moss flora to be calciphiles. In Japan, Nagano and Noguchi (1958, 1960) and Nagano (1969, 1972) made chemical comparisons of limestone-inhabiting bryophytes with those of non-basic rock substrates such as quartz-diorite and chert and found them to be very dissimilar. Nagano (1972) analyzed moss plants for N, Mg, Ca, K, and P content, and found that Ca was 0007-2745/80/161-169$1.10/0