Bryological Monograph An annotated checklist of the mosses of ...

DNA sequencing to understand basic relationships. This
has revolutionized the systematics of land plants and
resulted in a new classification of mosses.
The immediate stimulus for producing a new list of
European mosses came from a meeting of the European
Committee for Conservation of Bryophytes (ECCB) in
Valencia, Spain, in September 2004. They intend to produce
an updated Red List of European bryophytes. For this
activity it is necessary to have an updated checklist. There
was no immediate need for a new list of Hepaticae and
Anthocerotae, which had been revised by Grolle & Long
(2000). Mosses were the priority.
A project to make a new checklist
After some consultation, M.O.H. was persuaded to coordinate
production of the new list. He proposed a project lasting
for the year 2005. It was given the name EuroMoss2005 and
had its own website. A Steering Group consisting of Michele
Aleffi (Italy), Bill Buck (USA), Montserrat Brugués (Spain),
Klaus Dierssen (Germany), Misha Ignatov (Russia), Lars
Söderström (Norway) and Jirˇí Váňa (Czech Republic)
guided the project. It played a crucial role from the start,
notably in giving the project sufficient gravitas to attract
authors who were experts in particular groups.
The project then proceeded in three stages. The first stage
was to construct a provisional list, including synonyms, for
experts to work from. For this, the ECCB supplied M.O.H.
with an initial checklist, which was cross-referenced to the
world list of Crosby et al. (1999). National and regional lists
produced since about 1995 were then searched for names and
additional taxa. Many lists were available as electronic
documents, either posted on the internet or sent by e-mail.
Members of the Steering Group acted as scouts, seeking as
complete a species list as possible. The output of the first stage
was a provisional list of names, some of which had authorities,
together with synonyms that had recently been used in Europe.
At the next stage, experts (Table 1) were each sent a
provisional list of names and synonyms for their group, and
Table 1. Experts contributing text for particular families; for the
authorship of the paper, contributors other than the coordinator are
listed alphabetically, with no attempt made to distinguish the magnitude
of their contribution.
Family or families Expert or experts
Sphagnaceae Flatberg
Polytrichaceae Hyvönen, Bell
Funariaceae Brugués
Grimmiaceae (except Schistidium) Muñoz
Fissidentaceae Bruggeman-Nannenga
Dicranales (except Fissidentaceae) Frahm
Pottiaceae Guerra, Cano, Gallego
Orthotrichaceae Lara, Garilleti, Mazimpaka
Bryaceae Holyoak
Amblystegiaceae, Calliergonaceae Hedenäs
Brachytheciaceae Ignatov
Neckeraceae, Lembophyllaceae Enroth
MOSSES OF EUROPE AND MACARONESIA 199
were asked to convert the provisional list into one
conforming to their own ideas. This process resulted in
most of the major groups having been reviewed by one or
more experts. The gaps were filled by the coordinator and
Professor Söderström, with advice from other bryologists
who are thanked in the acknowledgements.
When the list was nearly complete, doubtful species were
reviewed in detail by the Steering Group, to ensure that
they received reasonably consistent treatment. At the final
stage, the information was loaded into databases (a
database of names, another of annotations and a third
with the bibliography) and reformatted for publication.
Information published in papers after 2005 was not
accepted for this list, which presents the state of knowledge
on 31 December 2005.
The area of the checklist
Europe is defined basically as that part of the land mass of
Eurasia bounded in the east by the Ural mountains and
Ural River, and in the south by the Caucasus mountains
and the Mediterranean and Black seas (cf. Söderström,
Urmi & Váňa, 2002). Defined thus, it includes the
Caucasian parts of the Russian Federation but excludes
Georgia and Azerbaijan. It includes Turkey-in-Europe,
western Kazakhstan, and all the Greek islands. It excludes
Anatolia and Cyprus. In the Arctic, Novaya Zemlaya and
Franz Josef Land are included (excluded by Corley et al.,
1981), as well as Svalbard and Jan Mayen. The Atlantic
islands of Iceland and of Macaronesia (Canaries, Madeira
and Azores but not Cape Verde) are included.
Nomenclature and taxonomy
With some exceptions, the names listed here are those
included in European checklists from about 1995, together
with names from the world list of Crosby et al. (1999).
Earlier names are ignored. This means, fortunately, that
there are exceedingly few cases where a name is ambiguous,
with different significance depending on authorities.
The more important subspecies and varieties have been
included, but there is no intention to include varieties that
are not generally recognized.
No attempt has been made to give a comprehensive
catalogue of moss hybrids. Hybrid taxa are mentioned in
the notes only if they have been treated in recent lists.
At the time of writing, moss taxonomy is being strongly
affected by the results of studies using molecular methods
and detailed anatomical analysis. In the present list for
Europe, we have adopted a standpoint that might be
characterized as moderately conservative. Thus we have
accepted new generic concepts in Amblystegiaceae (mainly
due to Hedenäs) and in Brachytheciaceae (mainly due to
Ignatov and Huttunen). However, in Bryaceae, Hypnaceae,
Plagiotheciaceae, Pottiaceae and several related small