Successional patterns of terrestial bryophytes along a wildfire chronosequence in the wet eucalypt forests of southern Tasmania

Terrestrial bryophytes are a major component of wet eucalypt forests and can on outnumber vascular species in terms of diversity. This study compared ten sites along a wildfire chronosequence in southern Tasmania to determine whether bryophyte total cover and species richness were correlated with forest age (time since fire). Five different age-classes were selected, each defined by the number of years since a stand-replacing fire event: last burnt before 1896 (>110 years), and last burnt in 1898 (108 years), 1934 (72 years), 1967 (39 years) and 2005 (1 year). Forest age was significantly correlated with species richness of terrestrial bryophytes, and species composition was significantly different between the different forest age-classes.