AN insight into diversity of the balkan peninsula bryophyte flora in the european background

Abstract

The bryophytes of the Balkan Peninsula are still very poorly known, and the region of South-Eastern Europe is bryologically the less investigated area in Europe. The aim of this study is to evaluate the stage of bryophyte flora knowledge and bryophyte diversity richness in the Balkan Peninsula compared to Europe. Thus, species richness (alpha diversity) and the size of territories, and their logarithmic ratio, are taken into considération. At the present, bryophyte flora in the region of SE Europe counts 5 hornworts, 267 liverworts and 897 moss species. It comprises 59.9 % of European hepatic and 69.4 % of moss flora. The richest territories in hepatic species are Romania (197 sp.) followed by Bulgaria (170 sp.) and Slovenia (167 sp.). On the other side, the poorest territories in hepatic species are the European part of Turkey (27 sp.), FYR of Macedonia (69 sp.) and Albania (91sp.). Similarly, the moss flora counts most species in Romania (747 sp.) followed by Slovenia (637 sp.), Bulgaria (558 sp.) and Serbia (553 sp.). One hundred and twenty mosses (12.9%) and 42(16.1 %) hepatic species are known from only one of eleven regional territories of SE Europe. The picture can be drown with the species recorded in only two of eleven territories: 149 mosses (16.9 %) and 57 hepatics (20.95 %). Besides, many species described from the region in the past still remain open to investigation regarding their taxonomie status. In the last years, there have been high activity in bryophyte investigation in SE Europe, and data on regional bryoflora constantly increase. However, achieving recent data on bryophytes within SE Europe remains stili a problem to face. Intensive investigation of bryophytes in SE Europe is urgently needed, just to approach the level of knowledge in other well-known European regions.