Karçal mountains (Artvin) epiphytic bryophyte vegetation

PhD Thesis SUMMARY KARÇAL MOUNTAINS (ARTVIN) EPIPHYTIC BRYOPHYTE VEGETATION Osman ÖZCAN Karadeniz Technical University The Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences Department of Biology Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Nevzat BATAN 2023, 164 Pages, 10 Appendixes It is aimed to determine the epiphytic bryophyte vegetation of the Karçal Mountains, which is one of the 9 forest hotspots that are the most valuable in terms of biological diversity and need to be protected urgently. Floristic studies revealed that 115 epiphytic bryophyte taxa (species and subspecies) related to the 37 families are dispersed in the area. Of these Leptodontium flexifolium (Dicks.) Hampe and Brachythecium buchananii (Hook.) A.Jaeger are new records for Türkiye. In addition, Leptodontium (Mull.Hal.) Hampe is a new genus registered from Turkey. Orthotrichetum rupestris Sjög. ex Mars. 1989, Orthotrichetum speciosi (Jaeggli 1934) Barkm. 1958 and Uloto crispae-Orthotrichetum striati Herzog ex Pec. 1965 associations and Anomodonto viticulosi-Leucodontetum sciuroidis Wiśniewski 1930 - anomodontetosum attenuati Phil. ex Drehw. 1991 subassociations registered for the first time in Turkey; Pseudoleskeello nervosae- Ulotetum crispae association and Anomodontetum attenuati (Barkman 1958) Peciar 1965 - ulotetosum crispae sub-association were determined as new for the scientific world. With these new syntaxa, the count of epiphytic syntaxa in our country has increased from 62 to 68. The epiphytic bryophyte vegetation of study area was analyzed by using both the Braun-Blanquet approach and Multivariate analysis methods such as TWINSPAN and DECORANA. Key words : Karçal Mountains, epiphytic bryophyte, bryosociology, TWINSPAN, DECORANA