A University project fights for the conservation of mosses and liverworts, the smallest and most vulnerable plants.
Researchers Belén Albertos and Ricardo Garilleti, from the Department of Botany and Geology at the University of Valencia, have launched the BRYOS project ‘Miniatures in danger: improving knowledge of protected bryophytes (mosses and liverworts) and their protection catalogues’. Albertos and Garilleti already led the Atlas and Red Book of endangered bryophytes in Spain. It was a milestone in the conservation of these organisms in Europe, whose protection needs are much more unattended than those of vascular plants or vertebrates.
31 de march de 2021
The project, which is supported by the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, focuses on six species that are currently protected but have data gaps that hinder the six-yearly assessment required by the European Habitats Directive. On the other hand, the BRYOS project aims to elaborate a proposal for expanding the national protection catalogues (LESRPE and CEEA) in accordance with the established procedure for the incorporation of species to the national protection catalogues, in which bryophytes are clearly under-represented.
Although these plants are not well known to the general public, around 1260 species of bryophytes live in Spain, accounting for 59% of the European flora. In addition, our country is home to 63 species that are exclusive or rare on a European or global scale. These plants, belonging to one of the oldest linages of life on land, are of crucial importance in ecosystems. They are great fixers of atmospheric CO2, regulate water availability, reduce the erosion processes in soils and generate habitats for countless invertebrates, bacteria and fungi.
The conservation of these species, which are very sensitive to habitat modifications, is a pending task, as only 10 of the 270 species on the red list of endangered bryophytes in Spain are legally protected.
The main shortcoming in this area is the lack of specialised surveys to locate existing populations to assess changes in number and threats to them. The smaller, short-lived species in particular are very difficult to detect on the ground and require a high degree of specialisation and intensive search campaigns in the countryside. Taxonomic studies are also needed to clarify the identity and real extent of the present taxa in Spain.