Bryophyte persistence following major fire in eucalypt forest of southern Australia

The significance of variation in fire severity is not well understood for bryophyte species richness and composition. This is despite fire being a major factor in determining bryophyte richness and composition in temperate forests. We documented the species richness of mosses and liverworts in 42 sites of Mountain Ash (Eucalyptus regnans) forest in eastern Australia. We compared two age classes: long unburned stands and 72year old stands following a major fire in February 2009. Within these two age classes, we surveyed sites of contrasting fire severity: (1) unburned, (2) subject to moderate severity fire (intact canopy) and (3) subject to high severity fire (burned canopy). At each site, we surveyed bryophytes in 10m×100m transects, which was large enough to include a variety of microhabitats. Roughly 60% of the variation in species richness (r2=0.61, p<0.001) and composition (R=0.57, p