Bryophytes from Praia da Vitória (Terceira, Azores, Portugal)

Rosalina Gabriel1, Cesar Pimentel2, Mariana Brito2, Javier Díaz-Castillo3, David Claro4, Cecilia Sergio3, Manuela Sim-Sim3, Paulo Alexandre Vieira Borges1, Paulo Borges1

1 Universidade dos Açores, Rua Capitão João d´Ávila, Pico da Urze, 9700-042, Angra do Heroísmo, Portugal; 2 LIFE project: Ecological Restoration and Conservation of Praia da Vitória Coastal Wet Green Infrastructures, , Portugal; 3 CE3C-Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes, Lisbon, Portugal; 4 CE3C-Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes, Lisbon

Corresponding author(s): Rosalina Gabriel (rosalina.ma.gabriel@uac.pt)Cesar PimentelMariana BritoJavier Díaz-CastilloDavid ClaroCecilia Sergio (csergio@fc.ul.pt)Manuela Sim-Sim (msimsim@fc.ul.pt)Paulo Alexandre Vieira Borges (paulo.av.borges@uac.pt)

Received {date}; Revised {date}; Accepted {date}; Published {date}

Citation: Combination of authors, year of data paper publication (in parentheses), Title, Journal Name, Volume, Issue number (in parentheses), and doi of the data paper.

Resource Citation

Gabriel R, Pimentel C, Brito M, Díaz-Castillo J, Claro D, Sergio C, Sim-Sim M, Borges P A V (2018): Bryophytes from Praia da Vitória (Terceira, Azores, Portugal). v1.5. Universidade dos Açores. Dataset/Samplingevent. http://ipt.gbif.pt/ipt/resource?r=bryophytes_vitoria_azores&v=1.5

Abstract

During a LIFE research project aiming at the implementation of habitats conservation and restoration of coastal
wetland areas of Praia da Vitória (Terceira, Azores, Portugal), there was the opportunity to undertake a systematic
record of bryophytes in three wetland areas: Paul da Praia da Vitória (PPV), Paul do Belo Jardim (PBJ) and Paul
da Pedreira do Cabo da Praia (PPCP). The objective of the study was to perform a rapid biodiversity assessment,
comparing the three sites in two different years, before and after the implementation of several conservation
measures. This project also contributed to improve the knowledge of Azorean bryophyte diversity at both local and
regional scales, including the recording of new taxa for Terceira island and new records for Azores.

Keywords: Bryophytes, Azores, Terceira Island, coastal area, standardised sampling

Project details

Project title: The inventory of bryophytes in three coastal wetlands from Terceira Island (Azores)
Personnel: Paulo Borges
Funding: This study was financed by the project LIFE+ (LIFE12 BIO/PT/000110: Ecological Restoration
and conservation Infrastructure Green Wet Coast Praia da Vitória) (2013-2018).
Study area descriptions/descriptor: Terceira Island (area: 400.6 km2; elevation: 1,021.14 m) is one of the nine islands of the Azores archipelago, located in the North Atlantic, roughly at 38°43′49′′N 27°19′10′′W. The climate in the Azores is temperate oceanic, with regular and abundant rainfall, high levels of relative humidity and persistent western winds, mainly during the winter and autumn seasons. Terceira Island is known for the presence of some very important pristine areas at high elevation (Gabriel
and Bates 2005 ). However, few natural areas still remain at lower elevations, notably in Praia da Vitória
county. Three wetland areas, Paul da Praia da Vitória (PPV), Paul do Belo Jardim (PBJ) and Paul da Pedreira do Cabo da Praia (PPCP) were studied in this project.
Coastal vegetation dominates, namely Juncus acutus and still includes some arboreal cover by the native shrub Morella faya. The Erica-Morella coastal woodlands as described in Elias et al. 2016 are not present and the exotic invasive species Arundo donax is very common.
Design description: A network of three or four transects in each wetland (160 m x 2 m or 300 m x 2m), was sampled every 20 m, in sampling points (4 m ); each sampling point was searched for bryophytes, collecting a maximum of six samples/microplots (10 cm x 5 cm); three replicates from soil and three replicates from rock.

Data published through GBIF: http://ipt.gbif.pt/ipt/resource?r=bryophytes_vitoria_azores

Taxonomic coverage

General taxonomic coverage description: Bryophyta including the Classes Anthocerotopsida, Bryopsida, Jungermanniopsida and Marchantiopsida.

Kingdom Plantae
Phylum	  Bryophyta
Class      Anthocerotopsida, Bryopsida, Jungermanniopsida, Marchantiopsida, Polytrichopsida
Taxonomic ranks
Kingdom: Plantae

Spatial coverage

General spatial coverage: Terceira Island (area:400.6km²; elevation:1,021.14m) is one of the nine islands from the Azores archipelago, located in the North Atlantic, roughly at 38°43′49″N, 27°19′10″W. The climate in the Azores is temperate oceanic, with regular and abundant rainfall, with high levels of relative humidity and persistent winds, mainly during the winter and autumn seasons. Terceira Island is known for the presence of some very important pristine areas at high elevation (Gaspar et al. 2011). However, few natural areas still remain at lower elevations, notably in Praia da Vitória’s council. Three wet areas, Paul da Praia da Vitória (PPV), Paul do Belo Jardim (PBJ) and Paul da Pedreira do Cabo da Praia (PPCP) were studied in this project. Coastal vegetation dominates, namely Juncus acutus, and still includes some arboreal cover by the native shrub Morella faya. The Erica-Morella coastal woodlands as described in Elias et al. 2016, are not present and the exotic invasive species Arundo donax is very common. The PPV was a large coastal salty marshland with associated dunes, which was largely transformed and reduced for urban development and underwent several dynamic changes in the last 500 years of human occupation. After some major work performed between 2006 and 2010, PPV is currently characterized by a large waterbody with islands of Juncus acutus isolated by channels. PBJ was originally one of the largest dune areas from the Azores, but after the construction of the Praia da Vitória Harbor, it was reduced to a very small wet area with a dune covered partially by J. acutus. Of particular relevance is the presence of a small stream adding some diversity of vegetation and arthropods. The case of PPCP is completely different, since this is a recently created wetland, resulting from the removal of large amounts of stones for the construction of the Praia da Vitória harbor, around 1980. As a consequence a new ecosystem was created, the quarry of Cabo da Praia.
Coordinates: 90°0'0''S and 90°0'0''N Latitude; 180°0'0''W and 180°0'0''W Longitude 

Temporal coverage: October 18, 2013 - June 14, 2017

Natural collections description

Collection name: Herbarium of the University of Azores (AZU) – section Bryophytes
Collection identifier: AZU, Angra do Heroísmo
Specimen preservation method: Dried

Methods

Method step description: The data in this sampling event resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table (events) contains 508 records and one data table extension also exists (occurrence), with 899 records. The extension supplies extra information about a core record.
Study extent description: This study covers a small coastal area with 3.58 km extension between PPV and PPCP.
Sampling description: In each site, bryophytes were sampled during the summers of 2013, 2016 and 2017 using a combination of standardised methods that included, in each transect and at every 20 metres, an area delimited of 4m2. Each sampling point (quadrat) was carefully examined to collect three samples (replicates or microplots) for each of the substrates that could be colonized by bryophytes (soil, rock). The area collected in each replica (microplot) was 50 cm (10 cm x 5 cm). The maximum number of samples obtained per sampling point was six (three replicates of soil and three of rock), but many sampling points did not contain bryophytes, especially those that were placed in places periodically flooded with brackish waters. For each sample of 10 cm x 5 cm, the scales for the ecological variables were adapted from Gabriel and Bates 2005.
Quality control description: The correct identification of the sampled taxa is crucial. Keys and floras were used to identify the species, and their coverage (in %) was also estimated for each microplot. The main floras used were Smith 2004, Casas et al. 2006 for mosses and Paton 1999, Casas et al. 2009 for liverworts. Taxonomic keys provided by Schumacker and Váňa 2005 and field guides ( Atherton et al. 2010 , Llimona et al. 2004 ) were also consulted. Some important internet databases were also consulted, namely the Azorean Biodiversity Portal and TROPICOS to obtain taxonomic data and BBS Field Guide online pages, Bildatlas der Moose Deutschlands and Swissbryophytes to obtain morphological and ecological data. Nomenclature follows Gabriel et al. 2010 . 

The colleagues Michele Aleffi (University of Camerino, Italy), Juana Maria González Mancebo (Universidade de La Laguna, spain) and Maria Manuela Pinheiro Sim-Sim (University of Lisbon) revised samples belonging to Grimmia, Didymodon and Cephaloziella.

Accumulation curves were performed and completeness was high for all sites when using the Jackknife first order estimator with values higher or equal to 74%.

Datasets

Dataset description
Object name: Darwin Core Archive Bryophytes from Praia da Vitória (Terceira, Azores, Portugal)
Character encoding: UTF-8
Format name: Darwin Core Archive format
Format version: 1.0
Distribution: http://ipt.gbif.pt/ipt/archive.do?r=bryophytes_vitoria_azores
Publication date of data: 2019-04-09
Language: English
Licences of use: Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 License

Metadata language: English
Date of metadata creation: 2018-09-20
Hierarchy level: Dataset

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