Moss and Liverwort Covers Structure Soil Bacterial and Fungal Communities Differently in the Icelandic Highlands.

ABSTRACT: Cryptogamic covers extend over vast polar tundra regions and their main components, e.g., bryophytes and lichens, are frequently the first visible colonizers of deglaciated areas. To understand their role in polar soil development, we analyzed how cryptogamic covers dominated by different bryophyte lineages (mosses and liverworts) influence the diversity and composition of edaphic bacterial and fungal communities as well as the abiotic attributes of underlying soils in the southern part of the Highlands of Iceland. For comparison, the same traits were examined in soils devoid of bryophyte covers. We measured an increase in soil C, N, and organic matter contents coupled with a lower pH in association with bryophyte cover establishment. However, liverwort covers showed noticeably higher C an

SUBMITTER: Ortiz-Rivero J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10497656 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature