Orthotrichum lyelli Presence in UBC Botanical Gardens and Substrate Conditions as a Determining Factor

Abstract

The objective of this study is to determine if there is any dependency of the moss species Orthotrichum lyelli on any specific tree species used as substrate, specifically between the species Malus fusca, Abies grandis and Fraxinus latifolia. If O. lyelli presence is dependant on the tree species that it uses as a substrate, we expect to see significant differences between species in the number of trees with O. lyelli present. A line-intersect transect method was used to sample trees across all 3 species along 5 separate transects, and the presence or absence of O. lyelli was recorded. The number of trees of each species with O. lyelli present were analyzed using a one-way ANOVA, which returned a significant result of p=0.0179 (a=0.05). A post-hoc analysis was done using Tukey’s multiple comparison, which showed that Malus fusca had a significantly higher presence of O. lyelli than both Abies grandis and Fraxinus latifolia, which did not differ significantly from each other. We concluded that the moisture content difference in the different tree species’ preferred habitats was a determining factor in the presence or absence of this moss.