Open Access

John W. Morgan

• The vascular species composition of volcanic plains grassland remnants of western Victoria is strongly tied to management history, with frequently burned remnants often supporting the most diverse native flora relative to grazed and long-unburned remnants. How the fire regime affects the composition of the bryophytic mat, however, has not been documented. I surveyed the moss and liverwort flora of six Themeda triandra grasslands subjected to different long-term fire regimes to understand how fire might affect mat composition. A total of 27 non-vascular species (19 mosses and 8 liverworts) were recorded, of which nine species were recorded only from a single location. Non-vascular species contributed 28% of the total diversity observed in this study. The liverwort Lethocolea pansa was the most obvious species at all sites, while the mosses Rosulabryum billardieri and Fossombronia intestinalis were also found at all sites and hence, would appear to be robust to fire at different frequencies. Frequently-burned (1–2 yr interval) grasslands generally had lower mat species richness than longer-unburned sites (4 to >20 yr intervals) and appear to support a subset of the flora (due to the loss of moss species) rather than a distinctly different flora. The preliminary results of this study contrast with the evidence usually found for vascular species, i.e. that frequent fire favours greater native species richness. Hence, the two components of the flora would appear to respond in different ways to fire and this should be considered in the conservation planning for this grassland community. Further field sampling is warranted to confirm the initial trends identified by this study.