Project for a Red List and country assessment of Italian Bryophytes.

Abstract

Italy represents a biodiversity hot spot in the Mediterranean area. To monitor and defend its great “natural patrimony”, coherently with the Europe Strategy for Plant Conservation (EPCS, 2002) and the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2020 (2011), the Italian Ministry of Environment, land and sea protection supported a national project to compile the first Red List of Italian flora (Rossi et al. 2013) according to IUCN criteria (2001), coordinated by the Italian Botanical Society. For Italian bryophytes the first red lists were compiled by Cortini Pedrotti & Aleffi (1992) for mosses and Aleffi & Schumacker (1995) for liverworts and hornworts. To update these lists the Working Group for Bryology of the Italian Botanical Society joined the National project and compiled a red list of bryophytes: the species taken into account are 61 [43 Policy Species (PS) and 18 Non Policy Species (NPS)]. 34% of the taxa are CR and EN, mainly due to the high number of NPS. Three bryophytes were categorized as Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct). Several bryophytes were categorized as Data Deficient (DD) because the available data did not permit a reliable assessment (e.g. Sphagnum spp.). To fill this gaps, in the last few years researchers started to include information coming from herbaria collected from Italian and European Institutions. Most of the data were made before 1980s and they refer to sites that have been altered drastically and, thus, require new explorations to verify whether these species are still present. The use of bibliographical data and herbarium samples are fundamental to launch new studies to monitor, also in the light of recent discoveries, the current situation of these species.