The Hornwort and Liverwort Atlas of Romania

The presentation of the methodology and the program used for mappingThe Hornwort and Liverwort Atlas of Romania was conceived in order to satisfy the stringentnecessity of concentrated information for botanists and conservationists implicated in flora and vegetationresearch and also in their management.In addition, the atlas can contribute to the evaluation of the species in the field for the:• Knowledge regarding the dispersion and the temporal dynamics in the chorology of allplant species from the country (rare, frequent and common; in decline or expansive; autochthonesor naturalized);• Evaluation of the inclusion in the "rare" category of the taxa considered accordingly, withconsequences on their inclusion or re-inclusion in this category;• Estimation of the value of the floristic biodiversity indicators ("species richness") and itsvariation in the field.At international level, it contributes to the satisfaction of the obligations of principle taken byRomania after adopting the international conventions regarding the conservation of biological diversity(especially the Bern Convention) and also to the connection with other similar works (finished or inpreparation) at the Central-European level.The necessity of a synthesis in the form of an atlas results naturally from the strong development ofbotanical research, especially after the Second World War, but in the same time is a natural follow-up ofsome important synthesis works, with monographic character, regarding the country’s flora andvegetation.The chorological map of plant species from Romania has various antecedents represented in severalscientific papers (published in periodicals), that treat the chorology of certain species or genera, and alsoin an abandoned activity, that took place during the '70s, regarding the chorology of the species from theCarpathian flora. In the realization of this work several, sine qua non conditions were imposed in order toassure the harmonization with similar publications and even a standardization of the nomenclature usedinternally.The cartographical distribution of the information was represented, based on the geographicalcoordinates system, in a grid of 6' latitude / 10' longitude (species distribution mapping system for CentralEurope). The nomenclature of the geocodes can be applied only on the territory of Romania (Fig. 3), butit can be easily modified and adapted for the Central-European or even the European geo-politicaldimensions.A particular performance of the software permits, for the first time, the visual presentation of thetaxa’s chorology on 34 cartographical bases at the 1:6.000.000 scale, that represent:‣ The administrative-territorial division of Romania;‣ The hypsometric map;‣ 1 st order morphostructural units;‣ 2 nd order morphostructural units;‣ 3 rd order morphostructural units;‣ The multiannual average temperature per year;‣ The multiannual average temperature in January;‣ The multiannual average temperature in April;‣ The multiannual average temperature in July;‣ The multiannual average temperature in October;‣ The multiannual average amplitude;‣ The relative humidity;‣ Average sunshine length;‣ Multiannual average precipitations per year;‣ Multiannual average precipitations during the cold season;‣ Multiannual average precipitations during the warm season;‣ Average number of days with precipitations over 0.1 mm;‣ Number of days with snow layer;‣ The major hydrographic basins, rivers from Romania;‣ The latitudinal zonation of the vegetation;‣ The altitudinal zonation of the vegetation;16