Propagule soil-banks are important for colonization and for the maintenance of regional diversity among bryophytes of temperate regions, yet they have not previously been reported from hot desert ecosystems and little is known about the relationship between soil-bank diversity and elevation. I used emergence germination methods to explore patterns of species composition and richness in bryophyt...

Bryophytes, a paraphyletic group which includes liverworts, mosses, and hornworts, have been stated as land plants that under metal stress (particularly cadmium) do not synthesize metal-binding peptides such as phytochelatins. Moreover, very little information is available to date regarding phytochelatin synthesis in charophytes, postulated to be the direct ancestors of land plants, or in lycop...

A fundamental challenge to our understanding of biodiversity is to explain why some groups of species diversify, whereas others do not. On islands, the gradual evolution of a new species from a founder event has been called 'anagenetic speciation'. This process does not lead to rapid and extensive speciation within lineages and has received little attention. Based on a survey of the endemic bry...

Transplantation experiments with Neckera pennata and Lobaria pulmonaria were conducted in nemoral Woodland Key Habitat and managed forest (in total 38 trees) in Latvia. Elastic cotton bandage was the best method for the present transplantation experiments. Dispersal and establishment limitation were found to be crucial for N. pennata and L. pulmonaria distribution between forest stands. 62 Foli...

Figure 1. Mountainous habitats provide a wide range of temperatures. Here Ditrichum flexicaule grows in the foreground. Photo by Michael Lüth. Importance of Climate In his study of the Gulf of St. Lawrence region of Canada, Belland (2005) found that climatic variables were the most important factors determining moss species distributions, with warmth of the growing season being the most importa...