Abstrakt
Although invasions by vascular plants are frequently studied, little is known about invasive bryophytes. Campylopus introflexus is an invasive moss endangering natural vegetation in western Europe and currently extending its secondary area eastwards.
Therefore, we studied its ecology in the Czech Republic (central Europe). We updated its distribution, described colonized habitats in term of the composition Of the vegetation, investigated substrate and water demands and which habitats in the Czech Republic are potentially at risk of invasion by C. introflexus.
We found that C. introflexus invades dry, nutrient poor acidic soils in a range of vegetation types, and is most common in coniferous forest plantations and drained bogs, where it colonizes open patches resulting from anthropogenic disturbance where there is little competition from other plants. Cultivation experiments showed that this species does badly when growing in lime-rich or waterlogged soils.
We conclude that the species has the potential to be common in central Europe because of the wide range of habitats with favourable vegetation compositions and ecological parameters. However, it presently represents no risk for endangered plant species and communities.