Analysis of substrate preferences of epiphytic bryophytes distributed in Turkey with PAST program

Approximately one-third of Turkey's land is covered with natural forests. These forests, which are sheltersformany living things, are extremely important for our country's biodiversity. In order to protect these forests directly and indirectly, it is necessary to know their ecological structure and balance well. Bryophytes are the leading biological indicators that determine the health status offorests due to their ecological sensitivity. These living things, which are considered to be the first plants to form in the terrestrial environment, have a very wide ecological tolerance. This tolerance width makes bryophytes more advantageous the an other plants in difficult habitats. For this reason, dry tree barks, bare rock surfaces and very dry soil, where many plants can not survive, can be substrates for bryophyte. In this study, the ecological relationships of epiphytic bryophytes determined from different forests in our country with their substrates were investigated. First, 855 sample are asobtained from forests in different regions of Turkey were brought together to create a data bank. Then, this data bank was converted into a data set using statistical methods. With this data set, it was isolated from other ecological factors; The life forms,life strategies and the relationship of epiphytic bryophytes with the host plant (tree) were investigated. Open source PAST (PAleontological STatistics) and CAP(Community Analysis Package) programs were used for ecological analyses in the study.As a result of the study, 62 bryophyte taxa were determined that spread as corticoles (living on tree bark) on 36 different tree species. Among these taxa, Leucodon sciuroides (Hedw.) Schwägr. was the species most frequently found on trees. In addition, Fagus orientalis Lipsky (Beech Tree) containing 54 different bryophyte taxaon 1130 trees was found to be the most important tree species in terms of biodiversity. It was determined that the PAST program was more useful than other programs for this and similar studies.In addition, in this thesis, substrate classification, community analysis, the effects of ecological and geographical factors on the substrate selection of epiphytic bryophytes, and bryological diversity analyses of substrates were discussed and shown with graphics.