Lichen and Bryophyte Inventory and Visitor Use Effects at Mount Rainier National Park

Villella J, Kofranek D, Miller J, Clark J, Spelletich J, Callagan R, Scelza JD, Hart-Brinkley N. Lichen and Bryophyte Inventory and Visitor Use Effects at Mount Rainier National Park. 2023. National Park Service

Montane ecosystems support unique biodiversity in the temperate world and may be particularly vulnerable to climate change. Increasing recreational use may also pose a threat to biodiversity, particularly in sensitive high-elevation ecosystems. Lichens and bryophytes (collectively termed cryptogams here) contribute substantially to biodiversity in high-elevation ecosystems but remain poorly studied. We inventoried lichen and bryophyte communities and analyzed impacts of disturbance and environmental variables at four study areas in Mount Rainier National Park, Washington, USA. The study areas ranged from mid-elevation, wet temperate forests (hereafter montane forests) to alpine environments and adjacent subalpine forests (hereafter alpine communities). A total of 77 hepatic taxa, 203 lichen taxa, and 195 moss taxa were found across all study areas, for a total of 475 cryptogam taxa. We found that cryptogam richness increased with increasing distance from trails across all study sites; negative effects of visitor use on cryptogam communities appeared to be particularly pronounced in alpine areas. Rare cryptogam occurrences were associated with less trampled, wetter, and rockier sites in the alpine zone; we did not identify any drivers of rare cryptogam occurrences in forest areas. Our results also highlight that random sampling may be inadequate for detecting rare cryptogam populations and areas of particularly high cryptogam diversity. Additional efforts by land managers to prevent visitors from walking off-trail in heavily visited areas could help conserve cryptogam diversity. Further research in areas farther from roads and trails would likely detect many more cryptogam taxa in the park and other montane ecosystems.

Type
Project
Authors
Villella, John; Kofranek, Dave; Miller, Jesse; Clark, Jason; Spelletich, Julie; Callagan, Richard; Scelza, Jay; Hart-Brinkley, Nikki
Publisher
National Park Service
Units
MORA
Keywords
alpine communities, cryptograms, MORA, Mount Rainier National Park, National Park Service, NPS, NPS Inventory and Monitoring Division, NPS Species Inventory Program

Program

Products

Collections

Browse the catalog