Future directions and priorities for Arctic bryophyte research

Abstract

The development of evidence-based international strategies for the conservation and management of Arctic ecosystems in the face of climate change is hindered by critical knowledge gaps in Arctic floristic diversity and evolution. Particularly poorly studied are the bryophytes, which dominate the vegetation across vast areas of the Arctic and consequently play an important role in global biogeochemical cycles. Currently, much of what is known about Arctic floristic evolution is based on studies of vascular plants. Bryophytes, however, possess a number of features, such as poikilohydry, totipotency, several reproductive strategies, and the ability to disperse through microscopic diaspores, that may cause their responses to Arctic environments to differ from those of the vascular plants. Here we discuss several priority areas identified in the Arctic Council's "Arctic Biodiversity Assessment" that are necessary to illuminate patterns of Arctic bryophyte evolution and diversity, including dispersal, glacial refugia, local adaptation, and ecological interactions with bryophyte-associated microbiomes. A survey of digitally available herbarium data archived in the largest online aggregate, GBIF, across the Arctic to boreal zones indicates that sampling coverage of mosses is heterogeneous and relatively sparse in the Arctic sensu stricto. A coordinated international effort across the Arctic will be necessary to address knowledge gaps in Arctic bryophyte diversity and evolution in the context of ongoing climate change.Key words: biodiversity, dispersal, local adaptation, microbiome, phylogeography.

Transfection of Arctic Bryum sp. KMR5045 as a Model for Genetic Engineering of Cold-Tolerant Mosses

“…Therefore, plants grow relatively close to the ground and form tundra consisting of dwarf trees, herbaceous plants, lichens, and mosses ( Walker et al, 2016 ). Since mosses possess a variety of features that are adaptive to the Arctic environment, such as high poikilohydry, pluripotency, and cold/freezing tolerance, they contribute substantially to the vegetative biomass and the species richness of vegetation in the Arctic region ( Oechel and Sveinbjörnsson, 1978 ; Lewis et al, 2017 ). More than 380 bryophyte species have been recorded from the Svalbard Archipelago, which greatly exceeds the more than 175 species of vascular plants found there.…”

New insights into the species diversity of Bartramia Hedw. (Bryophyta) in Antarctica

“…Bryophyte species, particularly in the polar regions, are often difficult to identify due to their generally small size, relatively few and inconspicuous morphological characteristics, frequent absence of sporophytic characteristics, morphological plasticity in response to environmental factors (especially the harsh polar climates) and as yet unclear species delimitations and taxonomies in many groups (e.g. Hassel et al 2005, Lewis et al 2017). DNA sequence data have been increasingly employed to better understand species delimitations and relationships, evolutionary histories and patterns of geographic variation in polar mosses.…”

Long distance dispersal in the assembly of floras: A review of progress and prospects in North America

“…In particular, bipolar disjunctions, in which closely related taxa inhabit the high latitudes in the Northern and Southern hemispheres but not the areas in between (von Humboldt, 1817;Hooker & Taylor, 1844;Darwin, 1859;Moore & Chater, 1971;Donoghue, 2011), are increasingly attributed to long distance dispersal events involving wind and migratory birds (Escudero et al, 2010;Popp et al 2011;Fern andez-Mendoza & Printzen, 2013;Lewis et al, 2014Lewis et al, , 2017aLewis et al, , 2017bVillaverde et al, 2017). For example, in bryophytes, molecular phylogenetic, phylogeographic, and divergence time analyses suggest that long distance dispersals in the Miocene and Pleistocene are the best explanation for bipolar disjunction (e.g., Heden€ as, 2009Heden€ as, , 2012Villaverde et al, 2015;Biersma et al, 2017;M arquez-Corro et al, 2017;Lewis et al, 2017b). Most bipolar disjunctions are expected to represent geologically recent dispersal events from about 9 mya for relatively phylogenetically deep disjunct pairs and 2.5-3 mya for species pairs (Raven, 1963;Simpson et al, 2017;Villaverde et al, 2017).…”