Two complex typifications and a new name to unravel Ulota germana sensu Malta non (Mont.) Mitt. (Orthotrichaceae)
Ulota germana is an epiphytic moss moderately common in oceanic areas of Patagonia (southern South America), one of the regions of the world where Ulota reaches a peak of diversity. It is easily recognized by very long perichaetial leaves, which reach the capsule when wet, an endostome of eight segments and verrucose spores. In Nikolajs Malta's revision of South American Ulota, a species was described under this name with apparently similar long perichaetial leaves and spores but with a 16-segment endostome, an uncommon character in this genus. No further references to this particular combination of traits are found throughout the literature of South American Ulota. In the same work, Malta …
Assessing environmental conditions of Antarctic footpaths to support management decisions.
Thousands of tourists visit certain Antarctic sites each year, generating a wide variety of environmental impacts. Scientific knowledge of human activities and their impacts can help in the effective design of management measures and impact mitigation. We present a case study from Barrientos Island in which a management measure was originally put in place with the goal of minimizing environmental impacts but resulted in new undesired impacts. Two alternative footpaths used by tourist groups were compared. Both affected extensive moss carpets that cover the middle part of the island and that are very vulnerable to trampling. The first path has been used by tourists and scientists since over …
Assessing the conservation values and tourism threats in Barrientos Island, Antarctic Peninsula
Antarctica has been witnessing continued growth of tourism, both in the overall visitation and in the diversity of itineraries and visitor activities. Expanding tourism presents unique business and educational opportunities, but it is also putting immense pressure on Antarctica's natural, and for the most parts, pristine environment. Understanding the effectiveness of different tourism management strategies and instruments, like the Visitor Site Guidelines adopted by the Antarctic Treaty, is fundamental to the sustainable management of Antarctic tourism. The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of Visitor Site Guidelines and other tourism management actions in reducing impa…
A survey of the epiphytic bryophyte flora of the Rif and Tazzeka Mountains (northern Morocco)
SUMMARY The catalogue of the epiphytic bryophyte flora of the Rif Mountains includes a total of 72 taxa, of which 66 are mosses and six are liverworts. Some new records are provided: Hypnum resupinatum and Tortula israelis, new to northern Africa, Antitrichia curtipendula and Cryphaea heteromalla, new to Morocco, and Dicranoweisia cirrata, Isothecium alopecuroides and Orthotrichum macrocephalum ,n ew to the Rif Mountains. Epiphytic communities in the different forest types have been analysed, with the conclusion that altitude and humidity are the main factors that determine their composition. The epiphytic stratum is best developed at the highest altitudes on the Principal chain and Tazzeka…
Epiphytic bryophytes in harsh environments: theJuniperus thuriferaforests
SUMMARY The forests of Juniperus thurifera are peculiar ecosystems that typically grow on mountains and highplateaux of the western Mediterranean basin with dry and continental climates. Some previous surveys suggested that these forests house a rather distinctive epiphytic bryophyte flora. Epiphytic bryophyte communities were systematically sampled in 19 representative juniper forests, for the first time spanning all the distribution area of this conifer. The flora consists of 44 species (32 acrocarpous mosses, 10 pleurocarpous mosses and 2 liverworts). Orthotrichum species are the most frequent and abundant in most of the sampled localities, including some uncommon taxa such as Orthotrich…
New national and regional bryophyte records, 66
a The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD, UK; b Department of Plant and Animal Production, Munzur University, Vocational School of Tunceli, Tunceli, Turkey; c International School of Advanced Studies, University of Camerino, Camerino (MC), Italy; d Grupo de Investigación Biología para la Conservación, Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia, Colombia; e Botanical Survey of India, Central National Herbarium, Howrah, India; f Botanical Garden-Institute, Russian Academy of Science, Vladivostok, Russia; g Viale Rovereto, Trento, Italy; h Department of Botany, Kherson State University, Kherson, Ukraine; i Kherson Branch of Admiral Makarov University, Kherson, Ukraine…
Reinstatement of the Patagonian moss Ulota glabella Mitt. (Bryophyta, Orthotrichaceae)
In 1842, J.D. Hooker collected a number of mosses on Hermite Island (Cape Horn region). From one of those gatherings, Hooker 141, four species of Ulota have been described: U. luteola, U. fuegiana, U. glabella, and U. eremitensis. The first two species are widely accepted, whereas the identity of the latter two has been recently discussed, and the names are now synonymized under U. fuegiana, the more widely distributed species in the Tierra del Fuego archipelago. Our studies, based on recent collections of Orthotrichaceae from Patagonia, show that specimens different from those of U. fuegiana and agreeing with the protologues of both U. glabella and U. eremitensis are common in Patagonia. C…
Reëvaluation of Orthotrichum Rhytiore (Orthotrichaceae)
Examination of the holotype of Orthotrichum rhytiore B. H. Allen reveals gametophytic characters which support the placement of the species in Ulota. The species is peculiar within the genus due to its unusual sporophyte morphology, and the occurrence of these sporophytic characters in Ulota is discussed. Ulota rhytiore (B. H. Allen) F. Lara, Garilleti, Albertos & Mazimpaka comb. nov. is the first known species of the genus in tropical America.
The European Union can afford greater ambition in the conservation of its threatened plants
The importance of Natura 2000 network for the conservation of natural habitats, wild flora and fauna at European level is undeniable. However, it may not have reached its full potential since the loss of biodiversity continues to increase year on year. Further on, a third of the plant species listed in the Habitats Directive to guide the declaration of European Union Natura 2000 network of protected areas is not threatened and there is broad agreement on the need to review and update the species list. Here, the effectiveness of Natura 2000 in the conservation of Spanish bryophytes and vascular plants included in the Habitats Directive Annex II is analysed and compared with the one offered t…
On the mend of bryophyte conservation in Spain: preparing a proposal for the inclusion of bryophytes in national species protection catalogues
The Spanish bryoflora contains 1291 taxa, 272 of them included in the Spanish Red List under any threat category. Although bryophytes show a low rate of endemicity compared to vascular flora, Spanish administration’s responsibility for the conservation of these plants is very high, since the country has 63 exclusive or rare species on a European or world scale. However, the representation of this group of plants in the Spanish legislation on species conservation is merely anecdotal. Royal Decree 139/2011 of 4 February develops a list of wild protected species (LESRPE and CEEA, Spanish abbreviations) and includes only 10 species of bryophytes, all of them from the Directive Habitats and the …
View on Bryophyte Conservation in Peninsular and Balearic Spain: Analysis of Red Lists and Legal Protection
Abstract Current knowledge on the bryophyte flora of Peninsular and Balearic Spain has been highly improved in the past decades, yielding to a still evolving list of 1143 taxa (862 mosses, 5 hornworts, 276 liverworts). Despite its low endemicity (a scarce 0.5% of the bryophyte flora), the Spanish enrolment, both by researchers and by administration, is key in bryophyte conservation science and protection, since it hosts over 40 species that are exclusive or extremely rare both at a European scale and worldwide. The state of bryophyte conservation in Peninsular and Balearic Spain is discussed through comparison of the three national Red Lists already published (1994, 1996, 2014) with the leg…
New national and regional bryophyte records, 40
1. Aneura pseudopinguis (Herzog) PocsContributor: K. HylanderEthiopia: Kaffa, Bonga, Gimbo, Meligawa, Barta forest, 3 km ENE of Bonga, moist Afromontane forest, among other bryophytes on dead wood,...
Updated description and distribution of the Patagonian moss Ulota macrodontia Dusén ex Malta (Orthotrichaceae)
Ulota macrodontia Dusen ex Malta is an Andean-Patagonian epiphytic moss that has been misunderstood in recent times (Garilleti et al. 2016). This may be due partly to the fact that it is a rarely c...
New national and regional bryophyte records, 36
In the moss flora of Uruguay there are recorder ten species of genus Fissidens (Matteri, 2004). Three of them (F. macrobryoides, F. prionocheilos and F. vitreo-limbatus) are species incertae because the type material for the names not was located (Purssel, 2007). As part of project "Studies on Bryophytes in the Cone Sur (Systematic and Phylogeny)" some specimens recently collected in Uruguay were determinate as Fissidens asplenioides a no previously species recorded in this country. The presence of F. asplenioides in Uruguay complete the distribution range of the species in the cone Sur (is present in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile and Paraguay). However, within the Neotropical region th…
Bryophytes of Europe Traits (BET) dataset
The Bryophytes of Europe Traits (BET) dataset includes values for 65 biological and ecological traits and 25 bioclimatic variables for all 1816 bryophytes included in the European Red List (Hodgetts et al. 2019). The traits are compiled from several regional trait datasets and manually complemented using Floras, species-specific literature and expert knowledge. The bioclimatic variables are calculated using the European range of each species. Details regarding the trait compilation and extraction of bioclimatic variables can be found in the corresponding data paper (Van Zuijlen et al. 2023).