Morpho-functional characterization of bryophytes from high and low elevation

Leonardo Malvezzi ¹, Martina Baccolo ¹, Marco Caccianiga ¹, Barbara Valle ²

Department of Biosciences, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy ¹, Università degli Studi di Siena, Siena, Italy; NBFC – National Biodiversity Future Center, Palermo, Italy ²

Functional trait ecology allows to evaluate the ecological characteristics of an organism by analysing a set of parameters: the functional traits. This approach found a significant development also in the field of botany, mainly with respect to terrestrial plants, with the functional application of Grime’s CSR model. This allows to conceive a characterization of the functional profile of plant species through the acquisition of few measurements, which can be easily obtained from leaf morphological traits. This method has been successfully applied to vascular plants, including both herbaceous and woody species; in contrast, it has been less or ever applied to non-vascular plants, and to bryophytes in particular. In the present research we selected a set of morphometric parameters with the aim of performing an investigation on mosses through a morpho-functional approach. Our selection of the parameters is partly based on functional traits typically applied to the study of terrestrial plants, adapting them to the morphological structure of mosses. The study includes 11 species sampled in different habitats, from calcareous screes of the Dolomites to low elevation wetlands, including both acrocarpous and pleurocarpous growth forms. The adopted selection of morphometric parameters includes 32 traits obtained through the measurements of different morphological structures, therefore data collecting involved diverse methods. Leaf characters were measured for 10 leaves per species using a light microscope. Stem characters measurements were performed mostly through a digital camera and a stereoscope. Samples' weight was measured at different hydration levels; specific plant area, i.e. the ratio between photosynthetic surface and dry weight, was also measured. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was conducted on the whole dataset in order to assess the existence of main ecological gradients among the selected species and the effectiveness of variables in describing them. This analysis pointed out two main gradients which revealed a few common trends in the morphometric characters; the first gradient is defined by group of traits which are related to leaf dimensions, while the second one is identified through characters associated with photosynthesising efficiency. These two main gradients are conceptually comparable to those established for terrestrial plants: plant size and leaf economics. The study addressed the effectiveness of a wide variety of morphometric characters, however the number of species which have been taken into consideration is rather limited. Further investigation should focus on excluding the morphometric characters which could result redundant or overly complex, ensuring the acquisition of further measurements from diverse species and habitats, and ultimately allowing to assess morpho-functional responses of bryophytes through more generalized trends.

Main author career stage: Master student

Contribution type: Talk

First choice session: 2. Ecology

Second choice session: 3. Biodiversity and global change