A guide to mosses and liverworts of Alberta peatlands

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Abstract:

Bryophytes are important components of boreal peatland ecosystems. They serve a number of key ecosystem services and are critical indicators of ecosystem health. Also, individual species have habitats limited by important chemical and hydrological gradients and hence bryophytes can serve as indicators of various peatland site-types such as bogs, poor fens, and rich fens. <br>

This guide treats 60 species of mosses and liverworts that comprise the flora of bogs and fens of Alberta (and western boreal Canada). The guide is designed to be used both in the field and in the laboratory. Photos were chosen to show the species as they occur in the field, accompanied by ecological and taxonomic comments useful for field recognition. For many characters a 10 or 14x handlens is required. Species are organized by the peatland site-type in which they are most common, but further information is shown on the ecological and phytogeographical diagrams that accompany each species. Ecological site-types include both permafrost dominated ‘peat plateaus’ and ‘continental bogs’ (without continuous permafrost). Fens, dominated by Sphagnum, are acid and here called poor fens. We use classical terminology for true moss-dominated rich fens and recognize two types - Fens with circumneutrral pH are equivalent to moderate-rich fens and alkaline fens with high alkalinity and high pH are equivalent to extreme-rich fens. <br>

The text is derived from an article published in Evansia in 2014 by the first author (Vitt 2014) and used with permission of the editor, Scott LeGreca. The photographs are almost all taken by Michael Lüth and are copyrighted by him. Additional photographic details for most species can be found at ‘Bildatlas der Moose Deutschlands’. Nomenclature follows Bryophyte Flora of North America for mosses (BFNA 2007, 2014) and Stotler and Crandall- Stotler (2017) for liverworts. <br>

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Reference Code: B17VIT01IDUS <br>

Full Citation: Vitt, D.H. and M. Lüth. 2017. A guide to mosses and liverworts of Alberta peatlands. 2nd version. Goehing, J. and B. Xu, editors. NAIT Boreal Research Institute, Peace River, Alberta. <br>

Location: ELECTRONIC FILE - BOTANY: MULTIPLE SPECIES <br>

Keywords: mosses, liverworts <br>

ADDITIONAL NOTES:
Information in this publication originally published in ‘A Key and Review of Bryophytes Common in North American Peatlands’, Evansia 31(4):121-156, 2014, doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1639/079.031.0402, which holds the copyright. <br>

Copyright for photographs held by Michael Lüth. Some of the photos are cropped from the original. <br>

Information in this publication may be reproduced for personal or public non-commercial purposes. You are asked to indicate the complete title of the material reproduced, and the name of the authors and publisher. <br>
Commercial reproduction and distribution is prohibited. <br>

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Mosses, Liverworts of Alberta Peatlands, Vitt 2017.pdf