Bryophyte Diversity and Ecology in Changing Environments

Bryophytes, comprising mosses, liverworts and hornworts, represent a foundational component of terrestrial ecosystems. Despite their small stature and non-vascular habit, they perform critical functions in water retention, nutrient cycling and habitat provision. Global surveys reveal that bryophyte richness does not always follow the classical increase towards the equator; instead, many groups exhibit a peak in cooler, wetter regions. Their simple life cycles—dominated by the gametophyte stage—render them highly sensitive to fluctuations in moisture and temperature, making them valuable indicators of environmental change. Recent warming, altered precipitation patterns and land‐use intensification have intensified pressures on bryophyte communities, driving range shifts, local extinctions and shifts in community composition. As non‐seed plants with efficient wind dispersal but limited establishment requirements, bryophytes offer unique insights into the capacity of sessile organisms to track rapid climatic shifts and into the vulnerability of specialised island and montane endemics. Understanding the interplay between species traits, climate and habitat heterogeneity is therefore paramount for predicting bryophyte responses to ongoing environmental change and informing conservation strategies globally.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Recent studies have uncovered an unexpected inverse latitudinal diversity gradient for European bryophytes, with species richness increasing towards northern latitudes. This pattern contrasts sharply with vascular plants and underscores distinct assembly mechanisms shaped by post-glacial history and climatic tolerance. Liverworts emerge as particularly sensitive to past climatic fluctuations, exhibiting high nestedness in cooler regions and limited turnover in warmer zones. In parallel, large-scale modelling of wind-driven dispersal and habitat suitability indicates that, despite exceptionally efficient spore transport, bryophytes are predicted to lag behind the pace of contemporary climate warming. Simulations across multiple species reveal that projected habitat loss substantially outpaces expansion under future scenarios, emphasising the need to integrate dispersal constraints into range-shift projections. Island ecosystems provide further illustration: ensemble forecasts for Macaronesian endemics predict a collapse of suitable habitat for most species by mid-century, severe elevational shifts and even wholesale extinctions unless active management and monitoring are implemented.

Bryophyte Diversity and Ecology in Changing Environments publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in bryophyte diversity and ecology in changing environments across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Latitudinal diversity gradient: Variation in species richness from equator to poles, often declining towards higher latitudes but inverted in some bryophyte groups.

Beta diversity: Measure of species turnover or compositional change between ecological communities across space.

Nestedness: Pattern in which species assemblages in depauperate sites form subsets of those in richer sites.

Sporophyte: Diploid phase in the bryophyte life cycle that produces spores, dependent on the gametophyte.

Bioclimatic variable: Climatic metric (e.g. temperature range, precipitation seasonality) used to model species distributions.

Dispersal capacity: Ability of an organism to transport propagules across the landscape, influencing its potential to track environmental shifts.

References

1. Extinction risk of European bryophytes predicted by bioclimate and traits. Biological Conservation (2024).
2. The mossy north: an inverse latitudinal diversity gradient in European bryophytes. Scientific Reports (2016).
3. Bryophytes are predicted to lag behind future climate change despite their high dispersal capacities. Nature Communications (2020).
4. Climate threat on the Macaronesian endemic bryophyte flora. Scientific Reports (2016).
5. Bryophytes of Europe Traits (BET) data set: A fundamental tool for ecological studies. Journal of Vegetation Science (2023).
6. Evaluation of the Water-Storage Capacity of Bryophytes along an Altitudinal Gradient from Temperate Forests to the Alpine Zone. Forests (2018).