Bryophyte colonization history of the virgin volcanic island Surtsey, Iceland

The island Surtsey was formed in a volcanic eruption south of Iceland in 1963–1967 and has since then been protected and monitored by scientists. The first two moss species were found on Surtsey as early as 1967 and several new bryophyte species were discovered every year until 1973 when regular sampling ended. Systematic bryophyte inventories in a grid of 100 m × 100 m quadrats were made in 1971 and 1972: the number of observed species doubled, with 36 species found in 1971 and 72 species in 1972. Here we report results from an inventory in 2008, when every other of the grid's quadrats were searched for bryophytes. Despite lower sampling intensity than in 1972, distributional expansion and contraction of earlier colonists was revealed as well as the presence of new colonists. A total of 38 species were discovered, 15 of those were not encountered in 1972 and eight had never been reported from Surtsey before (Bryum elegans, Ceratodon heterophyllus, Didymodon rigidulus, Eurhynchium praelongum, Schistidium confertum, S. papillosum, Tortula hoppeana and T. muralis). Habitat loss due to erosion and reduced thermal activity in combination with successional vegetation changes are likely to have played a significant role in the decline of some bryophyte species which were abundant in 1972 (Leptobryum pyriforme, Schistidium apocarpum coll., Funaria hygrometrica, Philonotis spp., Pohlia spp, Schistidium strictum, Sanionia uncinata) while others have continued to thrive and expand (e.g. Schistidium maritimum, Racomitrium lanuginosum, R. ericoides, R. fasciculare and Bryum argenteum). Some species (especially Bryum spp.) benefit from the formation of new habitats, such as grassland within a gull colony, which was established in 1984. Several newcomers are rarely producing sporophytes on Iceland and are unlikely to have been dispersed by airborne spores. They are more likely to have been introduced to Surtsey by seagulls in the form of vegetative fragments or dispersal agents (Bryum elegans, Didymodon rigidulus, Eurhynchium praelongum, Ceratodon heterophyllus and Ulota phyllantha). The establishment of the gull colony also means that leakage of nutrients from the nesting area is, at least locally, downplaying the relative importance of nitrogen fixation by cyanobacteria growing in bryophyte shoots

Population structure and genetic diversity in the nannandrous moss Homalothecium lutescens: does the dwarf male system facilitate gene flow?

Nannandry is a sexual system where males ("dwarf males") are much smaller than the conspecific females. Dwarf males occur in a wide range of unrelated organisms but the evolutionary advantages of this condition are poorly understood. The dwarf male sexual system results in differences in the mode of dispersal and establishment as well as the life span between males and females. Such differences must have profound effects on the population dynamics and genetic structures. We have studied four populations of the nannandrous moss Homalothecium lutescens in southern Sweden. We genotyped dwarf males and female shoots with the aim of describing the genetic diversity and structure of the populations

Lipidomes of Icelandic bryophytes and screening of high contents of polyunsaturated fatty acids by using lipidomics approach

Funding Information: We acknowledge Dr. Maonian Xu, University of Iceland , for the help of grinding plant materials in liquid nitrogen. Mingzhou Bai, BGI Shenzhen, is acknowledged for preparing phylogeny tree figures. This study is funded by Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions, Innovative Training Networks under European Union Horizon 2020 programme under grant agreement No. 765115—MossTech . Funding Information: We acknowledge Dr. Maonian Xu, University of Iceland, for the help of grinding plant materials in liquid nitrogen. Mingzhou Bai, BGI Shenzhen, is acknowledged for preparing phylogeny tree figures. This study is funded by Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions, Innovative Training Networks under European Union Horizon 2020 programme under grant agreement No. 765115—MossTech. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Author(s)Bryophytes (mosses, liverworts, and hornworts) have interested researchers because of their high chemical diversity and their potential uses in pharmaceutical, food, and cosmetic industries. Specifically, long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (l-PUFA) such as arachidonic acid (AA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) are commonly found in bryophytes, but not in vascular plants. Bryophytes accumulate PUFAs in cold or even freezing temperature to keep the cell fluidity. Iceland has a long history of bryophyte vegetation. These bryophytes are highly adapted to the harsh environment in Iceland and therefore are expected to produce high amounts of PUFAs. However, despite the fact that hundreds of mosses and liverworts have been found in Iceland, their lipid profiles largely remain unknown. In this study, we performed untargeted lipidomics by using UPLC-ESI-QTOF-MS as a rapid screening strategy to examine the lipid compositions of 39 local bryophyte species in Iceland and aimed to find high AA and EPA producers. A total of 280 lipid molecular species from 15 lipid classes were quantified with isotope-labeled internal standards. AA and EPA were abundantly distributed in the phospholipids (mainly PC and PE) and glycerolipids (MGDG and DGDG) in six moss species, namely Racomotrium lanuginosum, R. ericoides, Bryum psedotriquetrium, Plagiomnium ellipticum, Hylocomium splendens, and Rhytidiadelphus triquetrus. Two of the six species (B. psedotriquetrium and H. splendens) also accumulated high concentrations of PUFA-containing-triacylglycerols.Peer reviewe

What do we know about hybridization among bryophytes in nature?

Despite being recognized as a widespread and evolutionary important phenomenon among vascular plants, interspecific hybridization among bryophytes has been strongly underestimated. In the present review, we summarize knowledge about bryophyte hybrids that are found in nature. Mechanisms of reproductive isolation in bryophytes are compared with those in vascular plants. The morphological and genetic features of sporophytic hybrids and their gametophytic progeny are discussed, as well as some inferences about hybrid fitness. The data available indicate that spontaneous hybridization among bryophytes is not uncommon and has an important, though still not completely understood, evolutionary significance. The existence of many allopolyploid taxa supports this conclusion. Finally we suggest some methods for further investigation of hybridization among bryophytes in nature

Okänt vatten – på spaning efter försummade grönalger

An account is given of the general morphology, reproductive biology, ecology and historical exploration of the green alga order Oedogoniales. About 150 species belonging to the genera Oedogonium and Bulbochaete have been recorded from Sweden during the period 1864–1964. Notably, more than 80 taxa were described as new for science based on material from Swedish sites by the Scandinavian algologists. Almost one hundred sites for the original collection of these taxa have been possible to locate, most of which today are destroyed or strongly changed

Population structure and interspecific differentiation of peat moss sister species Sphagnum capillifolium and S. rubellum in northern Europe.

Isozyme electrophoresis was used to study the morphologically similar sister speciesSphagnum rubellum andS. capillifolium from a sample of 1313 plants representing 37 populations from Scandinavia, Great Britain and S Germany. The mean pairwise genetic identities (I) among conspecific populations were 0.976 forS. rubellum and 0.969 forS. capillifolium, versus 0.627 between populations of the two species. Interspecific gene flow was indicated by the observation of occasional plants in sympatric populations with alleles otherwise unique to the other species. Populations of bisexualS. capillifolium were significantly more variable than populations of unisexualS. rubellum. Alpine populations ofS. rubellum andS. capillifolium were dominated by few genotypes, and differentiation among populations was pronounced, indicating a low level of sexual recombination. InS. rubellum, maximum variability was found in western areas with high annual precipitation. Distribution of alleles inS. rubellum indicated restricted gene flow between Great Britain and Scandinavia. Postglacial migration from separate refugia may explain large-scale variation inS. rubellum

Preliminära resultat från registrering av sporkapslar i inventeringen av Skånes mossor

[Preliminary results from bryophyte spore capsule records in the county of Skåne, southernmost Sweden] Occurrences of sporophytes are recorded by inventorers within the bryophyte flora project for Skåne. Here we present commented distribution maps with sporophyte presence/absence indicated for Calliergonella cuspidata, Dicranum scoparium, Encalypta streptocarpa, Homalothecium sericeum, Hylocomium splendens, Isothecium alopecuroides, I. myosuroides, Leucobryum glaucum, Plagiothecium undulatum, Pleurozium schreberi, Pseudoscleropodium purum, Sphagnum capillifolium, S. squarrosum and Thuidium tamariscinum. Several widespread perennial pleurocarpous mosses have a low incidence of sporophyte production. Occurences of sites with presence of sporophytes for different species appear to be aggregated in some regions, sometimes even in small forest fragments in the farmland districts

Isozyme evidence of relationships within Sphagnum sect. Acutifolia (Sphagnaceae, Bryophyta).

Ten enzyme systems coding for 13 putative loci were studied in 12 European species of Sphagnum sect. Acutifolia (peat mosses). On average seven plants from each of 73 collections made throughout N Europe were analysed. Despite complex morphological variation, all species expressed unique allele combinations. Principal components and cluster analyses based on allele frequencies showed that sect. Acutifolia can be divided into two major groups; one comprising Sphagnum fimbriatum, S. girgensohnii and S. molle; the second comprising S. capillifolium, S. angermanicum, S. fuscum, S. quinquefa- rium, S. rubellum, S. subfulvum, S. subnitens and S. warnstorfii. These groups are linked by S. russowii, which is shown to be an allopolyploid, with fixed heterozygosity at 6 to 8 of the loci. The presumed progenitors of S. russowii are S. girgensohnii and S. rubellum. Allelic data also indicate that S. teres from sect. Squarrosa is related to S. girgensohnii and S. fimbriatum. The bisexual species tend to be less variable than the unisexual species