Extinction risk of threatened and non-threatened mosses: Reproductive and ecological patterns

Abstract

For the conservation of species, it is crucial to predict extinction risk by discerning drivers such as biological traits and habitat specificity within the current context of environmental change. However, we lack comprehensive studies for threatened bryophytes that include comparisons to non-threatened ones. We aim to fill this gap and to detect biological traits related to extinction risk that provide new insights to develop conservation strategies for bryophytes. We analyzed the mosses of Spain (n = 771) categorized into two groups (threatened and non-threatened) based on the IUCN Red List categories and considered seven variables related to reproduction and habitat preferences.Threatened mosses show reproductive and habitat preference patterns that differ from those of the non-threatened species. The lack of reproduction, asexual reproduction, and monoicy are more common among threatened than non-threatened mosses. Habitat specialization, acidic and humid substrates are ecological characteristics associated with threatened mosses. In contrast, sexual reproduction and dioicy are more frequent among non-threatened species. Ecological features, such as the colonization of multiple habitats and wider altitudinal ranges, are also more often associated with non-threatened mosses.Overall, we show that the extinction risk of mosses is associated with distinct reproductive traits and habitat preferences that may be related to the current context of global change and the natural rarity of some species.

Keywords

• Conservation
• Endangered bryophytes
• Habitat preferences
• Reproduction
• Syndromes