Occurrence of the Green Shield-Moss Buxbaumia viridis (Moug.) Brid. in the Bieszczady Mountains of Poland

Abstract

The small-sized gametophytes and sporophytes of the green shield-moss Buxbaumia viridis (Moug.) Brid. make it difficult to study. However, in Europe, there has been increasing interest in this species in the past few years, mostly as a result of the implementation of the Natura 2000 network. In Poland, B. viridis has only been reported in isolated studies that have been limited in terms of area and the number of participating workers. One of the Polish regions where B. viridis was recently recorded is the Bieszczady Mountains, but there have been no large-scale surveys of that region to date. The objective of the current work was to describe the B. viridis population in the Bieszczady Mountains in terms of its spatial distribution and abundance, investigate its selected microhabitat preferences, and evaluate the conservation status of this moss species within the Natura 2000 site Bieszczady PLC180001. The studied region encompassed 93,490.44 ha, including 69,056.23 ha of managed forests and 24,434.21 ha of forests belonging to the Bieszczady National Park. A preliminary survey was conducted in the Cisna Forest District (forest area of 19,555.82 ha) on 15-17 November 2017, while the main survey was performed in selected forest subcompartments of four forest districts—Baligród, Komańcza, Lutowiska, and Stuposiany—as well as the Bieszczady National Park from 5 to 16 November 2018. The field work consisted of searching for B. viridis sporophytes and setae and recording selected population and locality characteristics. The study led to the discovery of 353 new B. viridis localities in 202 study areas, with 9197 diploid individuals (sporophytes or setae only) growing in 545 microhabitats. The number of B. viridis localities discovered in the Bieszczady Mountains during 17 days of survey in 2017 and 2018 was two times higher than the combined number of localities previously found in Poland over more than 150 years (159 localities). Additionally, the number of sporophytes and setae identified was two times greater than their overall number in previous records. In addition, this study provides information about selected microhabitat preferences and the conservation status of this moss in the Bieszczady Natura 2000 site.

Population and Conservation Status of Buxbaumia viridis (DC.) Moug. & Nestl. in Romania

“…We assembled a database with 195 spatial records by combining 159 original and 36 published distribution information. We found sporophytes during snowy winter, demonstrating that it is not impossible to find them in this period [ 14 ]. All known distribution records for B. viridis in Romania are presented in the subsequent maps ( Figure 1 , Figure 2 , Figure 3 and Figure 4 ).…”

First report of Cladosporium herbarum ( Capnodiales, Dothideomycetes ) on the rare moss Buxbaumia viridis in Bulgaria

“…In Europe it has been reported also on the dead wood of Fagus sylvatica L. (Wolf 2015;Deme & al. 2020;Brewczyński 2021;Guillet & al. 2021).…”

Possible Effects of Climate Change on the Occurrence and Distribution of the Rare Moss Buxbaumia viridis in Serbia (SE Europe)

“…Until recently, it was considered Endangered (EN) at the overall European level [ 11 ]. However, lately, it has been the subject of a number of various surveys and monitoring programs, that have resulted in many new records and increased its distribution knowledge, for example in Czechia [ 8 , 12 ], Poland [ 13 ], or Slovenia [ 14 ]. Due to the recent increase in the distribution data of the species, it was recently assessed as the Least Concern (LC) at the European continental level and so reported in the new European Red List (Hodgetts et al, 2019 a, b).…”