Abstract:The bryophytes community in valley area of upper reach in Maotai, Guizhou Province, China was studied. The results showed that there were 116 bryophytes taxa belonging to 53 genera and 30 families. The bryophytes could be divided into 6 types, such as petrophytia, terrestrial, psammophytic, epiphytic, saprophytic and aquatic. Principal components analysis (PCA) showed that distribution pattern of bryophytes had significant difference affected by microenvironment factors. Isopterygium albescens, Weissia platyphylloides, Trichostomum brachydontium, Ptychomitrium dentatum, Brachythecium salebrosum and Campylopus subfragilis are dominant bryophytes, and their biomass ranged from 32.80 to 225.00 g m-2 with saturated water absorption from 23519.90 to 269999.96 g m-2. It suggested that the bryophytes could play important roles in the process of soil and water conservation, material recycling, improvement and replace of soil in valley area of upper reach in Maotai.
