Comparative Patterns of Sex Expression and Sex Ratios in Island and Continental Bryophyte Populations.

Reproductive biology patterns are crucial for understanding the dynamics and evolution of plants. This is particularly relevant in bryophytes, where sex expression and reproductive success can vary significantly with environmental conditions. Islands, with their isolated and diverse environments, provide natural laboratories to explore these dynamics.

Ecological drivers of taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic diversity of bryophytes in an oceanic island.

Montane oceanic islands possess unique geographic and ecological attributes, rendering them valuable for assessing patterns and drivers of alpha and beta taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic diversity along elevational gradients. Such comparisons of diversity facets can provide insights into the mechanisms governing community assembly on islands. Herein, we aimed to characterize taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic bryophyte diversity on Madeira Island within and across areas at varying elevations.

The MOVECLIM - AZORES project: Bryophytes from Pico Island along an elevation gradient.

Background: In September 2012, a comprehensive survey of Pico Island was conducted along an elevational transect, starting at Manhenha (10 m a.s.l.

Biota of coastal wetlands of Praia da Vitória (Terceira Island, Azores): Part 2 - Bryophytes.

Background: During the LIFE-CWR project "Ecological Restoration and Conservation of Coastal Wet Green Infrastructures", there was the opportunity to undertake a systematic record of bryophytes at (PPV), (PBJ) and (PPCP), three coastal wetland areas of (Terceira, Azores, Portugal). The objective of the study was to perform a biodiversity assessment, comparing the three sites at two different moments, before and after the implementation of several conservation measures. This project also contributed to improve the knowledge of Azorean bryophyte diversity at both local and regional scales, including the recording of two new taxa for the Azores and three new taxa for Terceira Island.

Climate threat on the Macaronesian endemic bryophyte flora.

Oceanic islands are of fundamental importance for the conservation of biodiversity because they exhibit high endemism rates coupled with fast extinction rates. Nowhere in Europe is this pattern more conspicuous than in the Macaronesian biogeographic region. A large network of protected areas within the region has been developed, but the question of whether these areas will still be climatically suitable for the globally threatened endemic element in the coming decades remains open.

Is the sword moss (Bryoxiphium) a preglacial Tertiary relict?

The disjunction of floras between East Asia, Southeast North America, West North America, and Southwest Eurasia has been interpreted in terms of the fragmentation of a once continuous mixed mesophytic forest that occurred throughout the Northern Hemisphere due to the climatic and geological changes during the late Tertiary. The sword moss, Bryoxiphium, exhibits a distribution that strikingly resembles that of the mesophytic forest elements such as Liriodendron and is considered as the only living member of an early Tertiary flora in Iceland. These hypotheses are tested here using molecular dating analyses and ancestral area estimations.