Bryoflora from Serra das Confusões National Park, Piauí, Brazil

Abstract

The Caatinga is one of the largest and most biodiverse tropical dry forests in the world and is restricted to the Northeast region of Brazil. In the state of Piauí, the Caatinga covers about 37% of its territorial area and has a heterogeneous vegetation cover, composed of xerophytic formations and the occurrence of evergreen, subevergreen and semideciduous forests. This work aimed to catalog the bryoflora of the Serra das Confusões National Park, an Integral Conservation Unit of the Caatinga located in the south of the state of Piauí. Thirty-five species of bryophytes were identified (21 mosses and 14 liverworts), distributed in 18 families and 27 genera. Of the identified species, 14 are new occurrences for the state of Piauí. Regarding the ecological aspect in relation to bryocenological groups, the rupicolous (21 spp.) predominated, followed by terricolous (13 spp.), corticicolous (11 spp.) and epixillous with two species. As for light tolerance groups, generalist species were more frequent with 52%, while shade specialists were represented by 39% and sun specialists by 9%. Five different life forms were identified: weft, flabellate, tuft, carpet and stalk carpet. Most species (64%) are distributed in the Neotropical region. As for the distribution of species in Brazil, 58% are widely distributed among the Brazilian states, 36% have a moderate distribution and 6% a restricted distribution. The results presented are relevant contributions to the knowledge of the bryophyte flora of the Caatinga, state of Piauí and Northeast region of Brazil.