Desiccation-tolerance (DT), the ability to lose virtually all free intracellular water and then recover normal function upon rehydration, is one of the most remarkable features of bryophytes. The physiology of bryophytes differs in major respects from that of vascular plants by virtue of their smaller size; unlike vascular plants, the leafy shoots of bryophytes equilibrate rapidly with the water potential in their surroundings and tend to be either fully hydrated or desiccated and metabolically inactive. The time required to recover from desiccation increases and degree of recovery decreases with length of desiccation; both also depend upon temperature and intensity of desiccation. Tolerance in at least some species shows phenotypic plasticity. Recovery of respiration, photosynthesis and protein synthesis takes place within minutes or an hour or two; recovery of the cell cycle, food transport and the cytoskeleton may take 24 hours or more. Positive carbon balance is essential to survival of repeated cycles of drying and wetting; significant growth requires continuously wet periods of a few days or more. Male and female gametophytes, and gametophyte and sporophyte, may differ in tolerance. Desiccation-tolerance is essential to dispersal and establishment of spores and vegetative propagules. The mechanisms of DT in bryophytes, including expression of LEA proteins, high content of non-reducing sugars and effective antioxidant and photo-protection, are at least partly constitutive, allowing survival of rapid drying, but changes in gene expression resulting from mRNA sequestration and alterations in translational controls elicited upon rehydration are also important to repair processes following re-wetting. Phylogenetic and ecological considerations suggest that DT is a primitive character of land plants, lost in the course of evolution of the homoiohydric vascular-plant shoot system, but retained in spores, pollen and seeds, and re-evolved in the vegetative tissues of vascular “resurrection plants.” Bryophytes have retained the poikilohydry and DT that are probably the optimal pattern of adaptation at their scale, but modern bryophytes are specialized and diverse, and are removed by the same span of evolutionary time as the flowering plants from their primitive origins.

A synopsis of the lichen family Gomphillaceae in eastern North America is presented, based mainly on collections made by the second author during the past 30 years. A total of 57 taxa is reported for the area, including 11 species and one variety new to science: Arthotheliopsis floridensis Lücking & W. R. Buck, sp. nov., Echinoplaca areolata Lücking & W. R. Buck, sp. nov., Gyalectidium tuckerae Lücking & Lendemer, sp. nov., G. viride Lücking, W. R. Buck & Rivas Plata, sp. nov., Gyalideopsis americana Lücking & W. R. Buck, sp. nov., G. ozarkensis Lücking, W. R. Buck & R. C. Harris, sp. nov., G. subaequatoriana Lücking & W. R. Buck, sp. nov., G. submonospora Lücking & W. R. Buck, sp. nov., G. vainioi var. semicirculata Lücking & W. R. Buck, var. nov., Tricharia floridensis Lücking & W. R. Buck, sp. nov., T. subumbrosa Lücking & W. R. Buck, sp. nov., and T. tuckerae Lücking & W. R. Buck, sp. nov. The new combinations Gyalideopsis berenice (Ellis & Everh.) Lücking & W. R. Buck, comb. nov. (Basionym: Stilbomyces berenice Ellis & Everh.) and G. epicorticis (A. Funk) Tønsberg & Vězda, comb. nov. (Basionym: Microlychnus epicorticis A. Funk) are made. In addition, the following taxa are added to the checklist of North American lichens: Arthotheliopsis planicarpa (Lücking) Lücking, Sérus. & Vězda, Calenia solorinoides Lücking, Echinoplaca furcata subsp. neotropica Lücking, E. lucernifera Kalb & Vězda, E. similis Kalb & Vězda, E. tetrapla (Zahlbr.) Lücking, Gyalectidium catenulatum (Cavalc. & A. A. Silva) L. I. Ferraro, Lücking & Sérus., Gyalideopsis africana Kalb & Vězda, G. aff. argentea (Mont.) Kalb & Vězda, G. lambinonii Vězda, G. macarthurii Lücking, Umaña & Aptroot, G. wesselsii Lücking, Sipman & Chaves, Tricharia cuneata L. I. Ferraro & Vězda, T. aff. farinosa R. Sant. and T. vainioi R. Sant. Keys and selected distribution maps are presented. Rich material of Gomphillus americanus Essl., Gyalideopsis berenice and G. buckii Lücking, Sérus. & Vězda (≡ Tricharia vezdae W. R. Buck) allowed for a detailed study on hyphophore development in these species.

A checklist of the 310 bryophyte taxa (two hornworts, 46 liverworts and 262 mosses) reported to occur within the political boundaries of the state of Nevada is presented. 238 new county records are also listed. Notes are provided for species with complex synonymies, taxonomic difficulties or interesting histories. This checklist is intended to improve efforts towards a complete bryophyte flora of the state by identifying those species, habitats and geographic regions that have been neglected or poorly sampled.

We studied lichen and bryophyte soil crust communities in a large public grazing allotment within a sagebrush steppe ecosystem in which the biotic soil crusts are largely intact. The allotment had been rested from grazing for 12 years, but experienced an extensive series of wildfires. In the 350, 4 × 0.5 m plots, stratified by topographic position, we found 60 species or species groups that can be distinguished in the field with a hand lens, averaging 11.5 species groups per plot. Lichen and bryophyte soil crust communities differed among topographic positions. Draws were the most disturbed, apparently from water erosion in a narrow channel and mass wasting from the steepened sides. Presumably because of this disturbance, draws had the lowest average species richness of all the topographic strata we examined. Biotic crust species richness and cover were inversely related to cover of the invasive annual, cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum), and positively related to cover of native bunchgrasses. Integrity of the biotic crust was more strongly related to cheatgrass than to fire. In general, we observed good recovery of crusts following fire, but only in those areas dominated by perennial bunchgrasses. We interpret the resilience of the biotic crust, in this case, to the low abundance of cheatgrass, low amounts of soil disturbance and high moss cover. These fires have not resulted in an explosion of the cheatgrass population, perhaps because of the historically low levels of livestock grazing.

The present monitoring study was undertaken to analyze the impact of atmospheric pollution on the lichens found near a power station in northern Spain. Data from 565 relevés gathered on 113 sites were analyzed. In areas near the power station the lichen species belong to the Xanthorion community. In areas away from the power station and that are not under the influence of dominant winds, the lichenic diversity increases and the species present belong to the Parmelion community. In intermediate areas between the two, there is a great increase in lichen diversity, in these areas there is a replacement of the species that typically belong to the Xanthorion community, by species typical of the Parmelion community. Because of this we propose the analysis of the number of lichen species together with the distribution of bioindicator taxa as a complement to lichen diversity analysis in biomonitoring studies.

Neogrollea notabilis, Jackiella curvata, Goebelobryum unguiculatum and Herzogianthus vaginatus are four leafy liverworts found in New Zealand whose phylogenetic positions are uncertain. To determine their positions, we sequenced three chloroplast genes, atpB, rbcL and rps4, from these taxa, compiled a 3-gene data set for 78 taxa representing all major lineages of liverworts and analyzed the data using both maximum likelihood and parsimony methods. Our results confirmed placement of Neogrollea within the Lepidoziaceae, but did not support the creation of the suborder Neogrollineae Engel & Braggins. The monogeneric family status of Jackiella was supported by our study, but the family is not related to the Adelanthaceae, Cephaloziaceae or Cephaloziellaceae. Instead, our results suggest that it should be included in a large marsupium-bearing clade of liverworts. Goebelobryum unguiculatum is confirmed to be a member of the Acrobolbaceae. Finally, our study showed that Herzogianthus was unrelated to Chaetophyllopsis, and should be taken out of Chaetophyllopsidaceae and placed in its own new family. The genus is perhaps related to Ptilidium and Neotrichocolea, which are positioned between the simple thalloid and leafy liverworts.

We examined “moss” (mosses and liverworts) purchased from commercial harvesters at a regional buying shed and in potentially harvestable field sites to find out which species are impacted by the moss harvest trade in West Virginia. First, we found that 60% of mats from 15 commercial quality bags were gathered from rocks. Thuidium delicatulum comprised 65% of total cover, with 77% of the mats from rocks and 23% from logs. Hypnum species (mainly H. imponens and H. curvifolium) comprised 25% of total cover, with 59% from logs and 41% from rocks. Although most of the commercial quality bags were dominated by Thuidium or Hypnum, 73 other bryophytes of low commercial value were incidentally harvested. Thuidium was associated with more incidental bryophytes than Hypnum and these associates often indicated very mesic to aquatic habitats. Commercial quality bags differed in composition from bags culled by the buying shed for low quality. Five such culled bags included Anomodon attenuatus and Metzgeria conjugata and a large number of walking ferns (Asplenium rhizophyllum). Second, we conducted limited field sampling at four sites on or near the Monongahela National Forest to determine the composition of bryophyte communities vulnerable to harvest, including one site thought to have been recently commercially harvested for moss. Results of field studies, albeit preliminary, generally corroborated our bag studies with regard to the ecology of moss harvest (what species are harvested together and from what habitats) and with regard to the prevalence of patchy harvest from rocks. Nevertheless, it was clear that a much greater variety of habitats and/or a larger geographic area is impacted by moss harvest than was sampled, and that direct study of harvesting practices is needed. In addition to the large number of incidentally collected bryophytes, which species-area curves suggest are still not fully captured, many incidentally collected vascular plants and animals were observed in both the buying shed bags and field sampling. We present outstanding information needs and preliminary management recommendations for the Appalachian region.

Spatial distribution is a critical component of population structure and reflects, depending on the scale, relationships between organisms and the biotic and abiotic environment, but has been poorly investigated in the case of bryophytes. The objective of this study was to describe the spatial distribution of Bryopteris filicina at two spatial scales: 1) along porophyte tree trunks in the Lacandona Forest of Chiapas, Mexico, and 2) among three sites with contrasting degree of conservation. We expected to find larger Bryopteris filicina populations in well-preserved conditions, compared to disturbed areas and on non-smooth trunk surfaces, rather than on smooth trunks. A modification of the Canfield line protocol was used to quantify the distribution of B. filicina. This species was found on a total of 142 trees, but it was over-represented on Ampelocera hottlei, Brosimum alicastrum and Guarea glabra. Height, within the range studied (0–2m), bark texture and orientation are good predictors of the presence of B. filicina between the studied sites in the Selva Lacandona. Bryopteris filicina tends to be more abundant on trees with smooth texture, oriented towards north in Chajul and Loma Bonita and South in Ixcán.

Resumen.  La distribución espacial es un componente de la estructura del hábitat y refleja, dependiendo de la escala, las relaciones entre individuos. El objetivo de este estudio es el de describir la distribución espacial de Bryopteris filicina sobre troncos de árboles. También se compara la distribución entre troncos de árboles de las regiones de Chajul, Loma Bonita e Ixcán dentro de la Selva Lacandona, Chiapas, México. Esperamos encontrar poblaciones de B. filicina más grandes y saludables en el bosque con mejores condiciones de conservación. Con el fin de describir la distribución de B. filicina se utilizó el método de la línea de Canfield. Encontramos a B. filicina en 142 árboles, principalmente Ampelocera hottlei, Brosimum alicastrum y Guarea glabra. La altura sobre el intervalo estudiado, textura de la corteza y orientación, son útiles para predecir la presencia de B. filicina sobre árboles de los diferentes sitios estudiados en la Selva Lacandona.

Philonotis species are frequent and often dominant components of many wetland habitats. We modeled ecological optima of the four commonest Philonotis species in three regions of Europe, using measurements of pH, water conductivity, altitude and vegetation gradients. We did not observe obvious differences in ecological optima among three climatically and geographically different regions. Philonotis calcarea was well separated from other species along the water pH and conductivity gradient and occupied the most mineral-rich and alkaline springs in all cases. Philonotis seriata was at the other end of the mineral-richness gradient. The morphologically similar species, P. fontana and P. caespitosa, had very little differentiated niches with respect to water pH and conductivity, which differed slightly among regions. Whereas P. fontana occupied more alkaline and mineral-rich habitats than the rarely occurring P. caespitosa in the West Carpathians, the opposite situation was recorded in Mid-West Europe. In Bulgaria, these two species exhibited practically the same niches with respect to mineral richness. The ecological niche of P. fontana was wider in all regions when compared to P. caespitosa. Altitude represents a discriminating factor only for P. seriata, whereas other species exhibit very wide intervals of response to altitude. We concluded that species with clearly differentiated niches like P. seriata, P. fontana and P. calcarea are accurate indicators of the chemical parameters of spring waters. Alternatively, known water pH and conductivity can support or call into question the reliability of Philonotis determinations. The total species composition of vegetation can also have a certain predictive value for species occurrence.

Descriptions and a key for identification are provided for the North American representatives of the foliose lichen genus Anaptychia (Physciaceae). Five species are accepted for the North American mycota, and a sixth species presently in the North American checklist, A. isidiata, is excluded, since its single report was based on a misidentification. Anaptychia crinalis is shown to be the correct name for the North American taxon presently referred to as A. setifera. Variolaric acid is reported from the genus for the first time.

This paper treats Caloplaca cerina, C. crocea and C. erythrantha with brief comments on C. pinicola, C. haematites and two unnamed taxa. Several new synonyms are presented and lectotypes are designated for C. borealis, C. ulmorum and C. erythranthoides. Epitypes are designated for C. cerina and C. stillicidiorum. Maps and color photographs are provided for the main species treated and a key for the identification of taxa in North and Central America.

Hypogymnia canadensis Goward & McCune is described as a new species of lichenized fungi from the west coast of North America, ranging from southeastern Alaska to western Oregon, inland to southeastern British Columbia. In many respects similar to H. metaphysodes (Asahina) Rass., H. canadensis is distinguished from that species by an imbricate growth form, more open branching, lobe tips that readily become brown in exposed sites, a darker ceiling of the lobe cavity, and the presence of 3-hydroxyphysodic acid in the medulla (K slowly reddish brown). So far H. canadensis is known from conifers in cool suboceanic to oceanic climates.

A new moss species, Didymodon coquimbensis J. A. Jiménez & M. J. Cano, is described from Coquimbo Region in northern Chile. It is characterized mainly by its spirally twisted leaves when dry, the red to orange color in KOH, leaf apex strongly cucullate, costal guide cells in three layers with 5–9 cells in each layer, and a bulging ventral costal pad of cells. Drawings and SEM photographs of the main characters are given, and possible confusion with other closely related taxa is discussed.

Eleven lectotypes and one neotype are designated for the names of the 12 Latin American species in the genus Fossombronia Raddi that have not been previously typified. The entries for each are given in alphabetical order with author citation, place and date of publication, herbarium of deposit and supporting information. The original protologue and images of the herbarium label for each type specimen can be viewed at the URL <http//bryophytes.plant.siu.edu/fossombronia.html>.