Refine
Year of publication
Document Type
- Article (38)
- Part of Periodical (37)
- Book (2)
- Working Paper (1)
Language
- English (78) (remove)
Has Fulltext
- yes (78) (remove)
Is part of the Bibliography
- no (78)
Keywords
- Europe (3)
- Spain (2)
- mosses (2)
- Alaska (1)
- Azores (1)
- Bestimmungsbuch (1)
- Bryophytes (1)
- Campylopodioideae (1)
- Campylopus brevirameus Dixon (1)
- China (1)
A guide to bryological hotspots in Europe : [Part 2: The Rur Valley, Eifel Mountains, Germany]
(2005)
The Rur valley is situated in the extreme west of Germany in the western part of the Eifel Mountains, close to the Belgian border. The Rur valley harbours several interesting, mainly bryopyhtes. Most of the interesting species are aquatic species. Very obvious is the oceanic element, which is represented by species such as Platyhypnidium lusitanicum, Hyocomium arnoricum, and Isothecium holtii.
Six altitudinal transects through temperate rain forests were studied at different latitudes in the South and North Island of New Zealand with respect to species numbers of bryophytes, cover and phytomass of epiphytic bryophytes, composition of life forms and ratio liverworts : mosses. Phytodiversity of bryophytes is almost constant from the lowlands to the high montane belt but decreases in the subalpine belt. Similarly, phytomass and cover increase with elevation but decrease in the subalpine belt. The percentage of liverworts increases accordingly and can reach maxima of 80-90%. The most significant life forms are tails and wefts characteristic for hyperhygric conditions, pendents for cloud belts and cushions for subalpine belts. The altitudinal gradient is much stronger then the latitudinal gradient, that means the differences between the elevations within a transect are more important than the differences between the transects. They are attributed to the humidity. The temperate rain forests of New Zealand have similar bryological characteristics as the tropical rain forests in equatorial latitudes in 2000 – 3000 m altitude but differ in the drier subalpine belt and higher phytomass.
Eight specimens of bryophytes from Baltic amber are described and illustrated, five mosses and three hepatics. The genus Grimmia as well as Brothera leana are reported for the first time as fossils. The mosses Ctenidium capillifolium, Atrichum groehnii and Hypnodontopsis fossilis as well as the hepatics Cylindrocolea dimorpha and Scapania hoffeinsiana are reported repeatedly. The hepatic Spruceanthus polonicus is recorded the second time and photographs are presented for the first time. In addition, a haplolepideous moss capsule as well as a unknown apparently pleurocarpous moss are illustrated.
Leucobryum juniperoideum was found on a fieldtrip in December 2009 in North Carolina. This species was so far known from the tropics as well from Europe where it had formerly be included in L. glaucum until 1962. It is the third species of this genus in North America and differs from L. albidum and L. glaucum by a different leaf shape, a different transverse section of the costa and different shape of the capsules.
A list of all liverworts and mosses reported from the Maltese Islands with references has been compiled from the literature, which includes 23 species of liverworts and hornworts as well as 96 taxa of mosses. The list is completed by the results of a bryological fieldtrip in March 2008. During this trip, 14 species of liverworts and 40 species of mosses were collected, of which Cephaloziella baumgartneri, Didymodon luridus, Fissidens gracilifolius, Fossombronia echinata, Funaria pulchella, Riccia cavernosa and Weissia fallax are new to Malta. This raises the number of species known from the Maltese Islands to 23 horn- and liverworts and 100 mosses.
The Chocó region in Colombia is one of the wettest rainforests regions in the world. Isolated for about 3 million years, it is known for its high rate of endemism in flowering plants, ferns, birds and butterflies. Bryophytes (mosses and liverworts) of this region, however, were very unsufficiently known. For this reason, a first survey of the bryoflora of the Chocó region was made in 1992 along a transect from sea level to 1800 m elevation. Apparently because of the high precipitation with up to 12 m annual rainfall, terrestrial species were found growing on bark or corticolous species on leaves. The cover of epiphytic bryophytes is higher than elsewhere, especially in the lowland forest which shows usually a low bryophyte cover. The percentage of mosses compared with that of liverworts is much lower than elsewhere. Mosses form only about 10% of the bryophyte cover in contrast to 40-50% in the according elevation in other rain forest regions.
The amino acid content (alanine/arginine, glutamine, proline, taurine) of five different lichen species (Evernia prunastri, Hypogymnia physodes, Parmelia sulcata, Physcia adscendens, Xanthoria parietina) from different parts of Germany and NW France with different atmospheric nitrogen depositions was determined.
The study revealed that the so called nitrophytic lichen species (Physcia adscendens, Xanthoria parietina) had no higher amino acid contents as compared with the other species. The amino acid contents of five different lichen species from the same tree varied without regard to the nitrophily of the species. The contents of amino acids of the lichen species studied from Bonn is four to twelve times higher as in the same species in the Vosges Mountains, France. The amount of amino acids in nitrophytic species (Xanthoria parietina, Physcia adscendens) from a region with high load of atmospheric nitrogen (35 kg/y/ha) is in average 5 times higher than in the same species from a region with low nitrogen immission (16 kg/y/ha).
It can be concluded that the amino acid contents of lichens reflects the atmospheric nitrogen load and that the amino acid content of so called nitrophytic lichen species is not higher as in other species, that lichens are passive sampler and take up the available nitrogen but make no use of it but store it as amino acids. On the other hand, the conductivity of the cell liquid (as a measure of the osmotic pressure) of nitrophytic lichen species is higher as compared with non-nitrophytic species. Thus the “nitrophily” of these species is presumably not based upon the facility to higher nitrogen uptake but osmotic tolerance against the salt effects of nitrogen compounds. Within nitrophytic species, the osmotic values of Phaeophyscia orbicularis are double as high as those from Physcia adscendens, which is explained by the higher tolerance of Phaeophyscia against dry deposition. The higher osmotic values of nitrophilous lichen species lead to the conclusion that they are also drought resistant species and occur in regions with low humidity where they are more competitive than other lichen species.
Almost 450 specimens of bryophytes, so far the largest collection of bryophytes ever made on the Cape Verde Islands, were collected in 1995 by the second author on the major islands of the archipelago. Twenty seven species (3 hepatics, 24 mosses) are reported as new to the Cape Verde Islands: Lejeunea ulicina (Tayl.) Gottsche et al., Riccia cavernosa Hoffm. emend. Raddi, Targionia hypophylla L., Barbula cf. consanguinea (Thwait. & Mitt.) Jaeg., Barbula unguiculata Hedw., Brachymenium exile (Dozy & Molk.) Bosch. & Lac., Bryoerythrophyllum ferruginascens (Stirt.) Giac., Bryoerythrophyllum inaequalifolium (Tayl.) Zander, Bryum cellulare Hook., Chenia leptophylla (C. Müll.) Zander, Desmatodon bogosicus C. Müll., Didymodon australasiae (Hook. & Grev.) Zander, Didymodon maschalogena (Ren. & Card.) Broth. (Didymodon michiganensis [Steere] K. Saito), Didymodon vinealis (Brid.) Zander var. flaccidus (B.S.G.) Zander, Eurhynchium meridionale (B.S.G.) De Not., Eurhynchium speciosum (Brid.) Jur., Fissidens sciophyllus Mitt., F. bogosicus C. Müll., F. flaccidus Mitt., F. helictocaulos C. Müll., Gymnostomiella cf. vernicosa (Hook.) Fleisch., Gymnostomum calcareum Nees & Hornsch., Hyophila involuta (Hook.) Jaeg., Orthotrichum diaphanum Brid., Tortula cuneifolia (With.) Turn., Tortula laevipila (Brid.) Schwaegr. and Weissia microstoma (Hedw.) C. Müll. The doubtful record of Marchantia paleacea Bertol. could be confirmed. Numerous species are recorded as new to single islands. Tortula pierrotii Biz. described from Tanzania has proved to be synyomous with Bryoerythrophyllum inaequalifolium. Didymodon maschalogena (Ren. & Card.) Broth. is an older name for Didymodon michiganensis (Steere) K. Saito. A study of types of species described as endemic to the Cape Verde Islands revealed that Barbula bolleana (C. Müll.) Broth. is an earlier name for Hydrogonium bolleanum (C. Müll.) Jaeg., Barbula elliottii Broth., Barbula kivuensis Leroy & P. de la Varde and Barbula madagassa Ren. & Card. are synonymous with the latter, Hyophila crenulata C. Müll. ex Dus. var. brevifolia Bizot is synonymous with Hyophila involuta (Hook.), Barbula sulcata Geh. is synonymous with B. convoluta Hedw. and Tortula subcaroliniana Bizot is synonymous with Tortula amphidiacea (C. Müll.) Broth. In addition to the so far unpublished results of recent collections, a complete survey of the bryophyte flora of the Cape Verde Islands is given. A hundred and sixty two species (2 species of hornworts, 36 species of hepatics and 124 species of mosses) are so far known from this archipelago.