Community water content (CWC) was measured across the sitein January 2008. Sponge cores, 2–3 cm diameter and 3 cm depth,were inserted into the moss beds adjacent to each quadrat, andwere retrieved after 24 h. The sponges were placed in airtight tubes,returned to the laboratory within 1 h and weighed to determinefresh weight. The sponges were then left to dessicate in the labora-tory, at a relative humidity of 22%, until a constant dry weight wasreached. This method has been shown to give a good correlationwith true turf water content while avoiding destructive analysis of the vegetation (Robinson and King unpublished data). The CWC was calculated as