Relationship between Bryophytes Distribution and Environmental Factors in Urban Beijing

We studied the relationship between bryophytes distribution and urban environment in an area of Beijing.A total of 327 bryophyte specimens were collected from 164 plots of 31 sites along the fifth ring road and surrounding area in Beijing.The Shannon-Wiener indexes of bryophyte diversity in the different study sites were analyzed.Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) was used to evaluate the ecological relationship between 20 species and their environmental factors in 27 simple sites.Some 55 taxa of bryophyte species,belonging to 24 genera and 12 families,were identified in the research area.Among them, Weisia planifolia and Physcomitrium sphaericum are widely distributed in Beijing.The results showed that bryophyte species richness in the north and west areas of Beijing were higher than in the south and east.The soil water content,distance to highroad,human disturbance,soil acidity,and canopy density distinctly influenced bryophyte distribution.Soil water content and soil acidity had the strongest influence on the distribution of bryophytes,with the most common species preferring moist acid soil.