Bryology Commons^™

A Flora Of Coyote Ridge And Flat, Inyo County, California, Martin D. Purdy

Aliso: A Journal of Systematic and Floristic Botany

California’s Sierra Nevada contains a disproportionate share of the state’s plant diversity and is one of the most floristically diverse regions of its size in the United States. The high Sierra Nevada, in particular, has been identified as an important center of species richness and endemism within the State. Anthropogenic climate warming is expected to disproportionately affect mountain ecosystems, and models have predicted habitat contraction and extirpation for many alpine plant taxa. A specimen-based inventory of the vascular plants and bryophytes of Coyote Ridge and Flat was conducted to establish baseline data for one such sensitive alpine and subalpine area. …

Trait Variation In Bryophytes At Karst Cave Entrances, Chenoa Briggs

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

Cave entrances are critical ecosystems in their role as ecotones between the interior cave environment and the surrounding external environment. Bryophytes are highly sensitive to environmental changes and many species found at caves are specialists to those habitats. This study aims to identify how functional traits of bryophytes are affected by the cave environment. Bryophytes and environmental variables were sampled from six cave entrances. Functional trait data was collected from literature. The data from this study supplies information on the functional traits of bryophytes and can provide insight into the effects of environmental pressures on community assembly.

Bryophytes At Cave Entrances Across A Range Of Anthropogenic Disturbance, Morghan Mccool

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

Cave entrances are critical ecosystems in their role as ecotones between the interior cave environment and the surrounding external environment. Bryophytes serve as ecosystem engineers of cave entrance microhabitats. This study piloted a method to quantify anthropogenic disturbance unique to cave entrances and characterize the bryophyte assemblages at caves in urban and other natural areas. Bryophytes and environmental variables were sampled from cave entrances; bryophytes were identified, alpha and beta diversity values were computed. So far, 144 species of bryophytes, 36 of which were state records, have been identified across 6 sites. By improving knowledge of bryophyte communities, park managers …

Discovery Of Epiphytic Lichens In Connecticut Suggests Novel Introduction And Reintroduction Via Horticultural Practices, Henry A. Frye, Zachary Muscavitch, Bernard Goffinet

EEB Articles

The discovery of Teloschistes chrysophthalmus in Connecticut more than one hundred years since its last known occurrence is argued to result from human introduction. The species only occurred on the horticultural tree, Gleditsia triacanthos var. inermis, planted on the University of Connecticut campus. Gleditsia triacanthos is not indigenous to northeastern North America, but is widespread in the central United States. Other epiphytic macrolichens also recorded on this phorophyte include Punctelia bolliana and Parmotrema austrosinense, both widespread in the central United States, and new to Connecticut and New England, respectively. This is likely the first reported case of combined …

Spatio-Temporal Dynamics Of Fungal Communities And Their Effects On Plants, Kel Cook

Biology ETDs

Fungi perform several critical functions in the environment. Spatiotemporal distributions of fungal communities will mediate when and where these functions happen and how they vary across the landscape. I first explored tropical tree canopy fungal community variation at small spatial scales and documented near total turnover of fungi across sub-meter distances and among adjacent substrates. The second chapter analyzed fungal turnover over the course of three years, where community stability was driven primarily by abundant fungi. In the third chapter, I tested effects of the environment, including host plant and habitat, on canopy fungal communities and found only small effects, …

Impacts Of Rock Climbing On Lichen And Bryophyte Cliff Communities In The Arid West, Giovanna M. Bishop

2020 Symposium Posters

Lichens and bryophytes make up the majority of the diversity and cover in cliff systems around the world. Recently, with the rapid rise of rock climbing, there are concerns rock climbers are negatively impacting cliff communities. My study will compare climbed and unclimbed granite cliffs to better understand the impacts of rock climbing on lichen and bryophyte diversity and cover in eastern Washington. The objectives of this study are to assess the impacts of rock climbing on lichen and bryophyte cliff community diversity and cover and improve route development and cliff management practices for lichens and bryophytes. This study will …

Relative Competitive Abilities, Intersexual Overyielding, And Population Sex Ratio Changes In A Bryophyte, Zachary Stanley

Theses and Dissertations--Biology

Unequal sex ratios are widespread in dioecious plants and understanding their cause is important to understanding fundamental aspects of their population dynamics, and yet what causes biased sex ratios in plants is still poorly understood. Competition experiments have been used in plants to predict the outcome of species interactions, but they have rarely been used to help explain sex ratio bias. This study used a response surface competition design to measure the relative competitive abilities of the sexes of the bryophyte Marchantia inflexa (a thallus liverwort of Marchantiaceae) to predict the outcome of competition before the onset of sexual reproductive …

Hydrogenation Of Organic Matter As A Terminal Electron Sink Sustains High Co2:Ch4 Production Ratios During Anaerobic Decomposition, Rachel M. Wilson, Malak M. Tfaily, Virginia I. Rich, Jason K. Keller, Scott D. Bridgham, Cassandra Medvedeff Zalman, Laura Meredith, Paul J. Hanson, Mark Hines, Laurel Pfeifer-Meister, Scott R. Saleska, Patrick Crill, William T. Cooper, Jeff P. Chanton, Joel E. Kostka

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Once inorganic electron acceptors are depleted, organic matter in anoxic environments decomposes by hydrolysis, fermentation, and methanogenesis, requiring syntrophic interactions between microorganisms to achieve energetic favorability. In this classic anaerobic food chain, methanogenesis represents the terminal electron accepting (TEA) process, ultimately producing equimolar CO₂ and CH₄ for each molecule of organic matter degraded. However, CO₂:CH₄ production in Sphagnum-derived, mineral-poor, cellulosic peat often substantially exceeds this 1:1 ratio, even in the absence of measureable inorganic TEAs. Since the oxidation state of C in both cellulose-derived organic matter and acetate is 0, and CO₂ has …

Sexual Dimorphism In The Moss Bryum Argenteum And Its Implications For Sex Ratio Bias, Jonathan David Moore Iii

Theses and Dissertations--Biology

In dioecious plants, selection due to sex function differences has produced sex-specific life histories, morphologies, and physiologies. In many dioecious seed plants, dimorphisms and population sex ratios have been plausibly linked, but similar links are not yet apparent in dioecious bryophytes. Population sex ratio bias is often expected to favor the sex with lower investment in sexual reproduction, especially in resource-poor environments. Unlike in seed plants, bryophyte males may have higher average reproductive investment than females, which typically have low offspring production rates due to sperm limitation. However, traits aside from reproductive investment such as shoot and leaf arrangement may …

Plant Functional Types Do Not Predict Biomass Responses To Removal And Fertilization In Alaskan Tussock Tundra, M. Syndonia Bret-Harte, Michelle C. Mack, Gregory R. Goldsmith, Daniel B. Sloan, Jennie Demarco, Gaius R. Shaver, Peter M. Ray, Zy Biesinger, F. Stuart Chapin

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

1. Plant communities in natural ecosystems are changing and species are being lost due to anthropogenic impacts including global warming and increasing nitrogen (N) deposition. We removed dominant species, combinations of species and entire functional types from Alaskan tussock tundra, in the presence and absence of fertilization, to examine the effects of non-random species loss on plant interactions and ecosystem functioning.

2. After 6 years, growth of remaining species had compensated for biomass loss due to removal in all treatments except the combined removal of moss, Betula nana and Ledum palustre (MBL), which removed the most biomass. Total vascular plant …

The Bryoecology Of Montgomery County, Illinois, Elbert A. Traylor

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.