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Welcome to the Bryophytes of the Tropical Andes web site! Regional diversity is one of the highest in the world for bryophytes with about 2500 species recorded (ca. 1000 hepatics, 1500 mosses). The scope of the project encompasses the countries of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and northwest Argentina. Here you will find links and text related to the rich bryophyte diversity of the Andean region. The objective of this web site is to provide a resource to the diversity, distribution, and ecology of tropical Andean bryophytes. Project data, distribution maps, and specimen lists are given for nearly all species. At present mosses are treated in greater detail with regard to text and images.
25%... That percentage is an estimate of the remaining natural vegetation of the tropical Andes given several years ago. One can reasonably assume that figure is now less, and is decreasing at an accelerating rate. The tropical Andean montane forest, one of the most diverse plant regions in the world per unit area, extended continuously from the Cordillera de Merida in Venezuela to central Bolivia. Today the Andean montane forest exists as fragmented islands, some large in extent, but most small to medium in size. One could argue that the entire Andean ecosystem is endangerd.
The recognition of families and included genera generally follows for hepatics Soderstrom et al (2016. World checklist of hornworts and liverworts. PhytoKeys 59: 1-828) and for mosses Goffinet & Buck (2019. Classification of Bryophyta. On-line version at http://bryology.uconn.edu/classification/).
Activities
· Fieldwork in the various countries.
· Data basing existing and future collections. Presently more than 74,000 collections are available to the scientific community on the Missouri Botanical Garden Tropicos system.
Resources
Links are provided to information on the countries, collectors, author names, literature, indices and keys (see below). Project page for all taxa. The majority of moss families and genera have descriptions, commentary and keys now in both English and Spanish. A specimen list, map, images [more than 3100, Andean and Bolivian project pages combined], ecological and morphological data are provided for many of the species of mosses. The hepatics presently contain minimal information, mostly project data and literature.Upper left side panel: Region provides an overview of the tropical Andes and individual countries. Find a taxon by typing the name in Name Search or select Family List or Generic List.
Use Advance Search to generate species lists based on 11 catagories, with multiple options, including in part status (endemic), plant catagory (hepatic, hornwort, moss), country, ecoregion, elevation, substrate, frequency. Advance Search is located on the lower left column.
Select Images (top row) and then select Image Advance Search to view all, use Key Word: moss, hepatic, bryophyte (= collectors/authors, site localities). A list of ecological and floristic studies is provided for each country (not taxonomic studies). Select References (top bar), and then Advance Search, on Reference Search go to Keyword, select on top bar Keyword and enter the country code: Argentina TAA1, Bolivia TAB1, Colombia TAC1, Ecuador TAE1, Peru TAP1, Venezuela TAV1. A list of all ecological studies for the combined countries is TAECO1.
Upper right: Choose Project: You can move from the Andean Bryophyte project to the Bolivian project or to Tropicos.
All information found on the Andean Bryophyte project page is continuously updated, with additional specimens, text, images and corrections. Comments, suggestions or corrections are welcomed.
Overview of Region and Countries
Key to Andean Moss Families
Index to Generic Moss Family Placement
Index to Generic Hepatic Family Placement
Index of Moss Synonyms and Other Names
Bibliography and Literature Cited
Author List
Collector List
Moss diversity and endemism in the tropical Andes (pdf)
A checklist of the mosses of the tropical Andean countries. (pdf)
Cordillera del Cóndor Ecuador Bryophytes. (pdf)
Catalog of Amazonian Mosses. (pdf)
Acknowledgements. Many individuals and institutions have directly or indirectly supported the bryophyte project over the last 35 years. Venezuela: T. Morales (VEN). Colombia: J. Aguirre C. (COL), L. Albert de Escobar (HUA), A.L.Arbelaez (HUA), L. Atehortúa (HUA), J. Betancur (COL), R. Callejas (HUA), M. Escobar A. (HUA), J. L. Fernández (COL), R. Fonnegra (HUA), P. Franco (COL), A. Gómez (HUA), E. Linares (COL), J.D. Lynch (UNC-Bogotá), O. Marulanda (HUA), J.D. Parra, (HUA), V. Pérez (HUA), B. Ramírez P. (CAUP, previous PSO), D. Sánchez (MEDEL), P. Silverstone-Sopkin, (CUVC), J. Uribe (COL). Ecuador: E. Jaramillo (QCNE), D. Neill (MO, QCNE), E. Toapanta (QCNE). Peru: J. Opisso (USM). Bolivia: C. Aldana (LPB), O. Apaza (HSB), A. Araujo-Murakami (USZ), L. Arroyo (USZ), S. Beck (LPB), E. Calzadilla (USZ), S. Carreño (USZ), L. Cayola (LPB), M. Decker (BOLV), A. Fuentes (USZ, LPB), H. Huaylla (HSB), Y. Inturias (USZ), M. Lewis (LPB and Quime), I. Linneo (USZ), R. Lozano (HSB), R.I. Meneses (LPB), F. Mogro (BOLV), N. Sanjines (LPB), M. Serrano (HSB). Argentina: A.B. Biasuco (LIL), M. Schiavone (LIL), G. Suárez (LIL). Elsewhere: P. Acevedo (US), B. Allen (MO), J. Atwood (MO), H. Balslev (AAU), B. Bassuner (MO), W.R. Buck (NY), G. Calabrese (MA), M. Cano (MUB), D. Costa (RB), M. Crosby (MO), C. Delgadillo (MEXU), J.-P. Frahm, M. Gallego (MUB), S.R. Gradstein (PC), D.G. Griffin III (FLAS), A. Hagborg (F), L. Hedenãs (S), J. Heinrichs (GOET), E.H. and P.D. Hegewald (Germany), R. Ireland (MO and US), J. Jiménez (MUB), S. Laegaard (AAU), J. Luteyn (NY), B. Mack (MO), R. Magill (MO), O.M. Montiel (MO), J. Muñoz (MA), M. Nee (NY), M. Price (G), R. Pursell (PAC), C. Rausch (PC), W.D. Reese (LAF), M.E. Reiner-Drehwald (GOET), I. Sastre-De Jesús (MAPR), H. Sipman (B), B. Ståhl (GU), W.C. Steere (NY), S. Timme (KSP), J. Vana (PRC), D. Vitt (SIU), H. van der Werff (MO), A. Whittemore (NA), K. Yamada (NICH), Y. Yuzawa (NICH), R. Zander (MO), H.-J. Zündorf (JE). Finally to David Katz, in a time long ago and place far away, he extended a hand of help on the Cam Lo River.
The National Science Foundation (DEB-8818051, DEB-9201281, DEB-9626747, DEB-0542422, DEB-1051545) supported the project including infrastructural support for institutions in Colombia, Ecuador, Perú y Bolivia. The project is presently supported by NSF (DEB-1655479). Small grants were received from the Conoco and Lawrence Fund, New York Botanical Garden (Colombia), Danish Natural Science Research Council (Colombia, Ecuador) and the Taylor Fund for Ecological Research, Missouri Botanical Garden (Bolivia).
Collaborators. MUB: Maria Cano, Mayte Gallego, Juan Jimenez. USM: Jasmin Opisso.
Spanish translation provided by Jasmin Opissio (USM) and Claudia Aldana (LPB).
Project illustator. Eliana Calzadilla (USZ).
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