The bryophyte flora and major peat-forming mosses at Red Lake peatland, Minnesota

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Abstract
Red Lake peatland, a vast mire complex in northern Minnesota, contains 21 Sphagnum species, 47 other mosses, and 17 liverwort taxa in its present flora, and several other species present only as fossils in the peat. Four broad vegetation types are recognized: (i) bogs, (ii) poor fens, (iii) forested rich fens, and (iv) rich-fen pools (flarks). These vegetation types are differentiated by water chemistry and bryophyte associations. Most of the major peat-forming moss species are common, circumboreally distributed taxa, and they are distinct in their ecology. Shifts in some of their habitat requirements, however, are evident among different geographic regions of the northern hemisphere. In bogs the major peat-formers are Sphagnum species, while on minerotrophic sites in Red Lake peatland they belong mainly to the family Amblystegiaceae.

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