Mosses as Bioindicators of Spatial and Temporal Environmental Variations

Abstract

Ongoing climatic changes and warming trends have various effects on species and affect their selection. Organisms have become between two options either adapt and survive or be vulnerable and further extinct depending on their response to surrounding environmental conditions. Bioindicators have a significant role to reveal the changes in the environment. Therefore, they are considered as a potentially effective and economical performing manner to assess environmental health. Here. The aim was to verify the applicability of mosses as bioindicators of spatial and temporal environmental changes. The cosmopolitan moss Funaria hygrometrica Hedwig had the characteristics that qualify it to be a model for this study e.g., the most abundant existing moss in Egypt, sporulates in different climatic conditions, easy to be recognized in the field, and so on. Therefore, 25 samples of F. hygrometrica were collected from seven out of 10 phytogeographic regions, in which the species have been reported in Egypt. Four samples from Spain were added to represent a wider range of climatic diversity. In addition, geographical occurrences recorded globally at the GBIF database and herbarium samples at CAIA herbarium represented a part of our materials.