Molecular identification of gametophytes of bryophytes and ferns, and their potential use as bioindicators

• Applicant: Dr. Marcus Lehnert
• Subject Area: Ecology and Biodiversity of Plants and Ecosystems
• Term: from 2010 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 168757773

Among extant embryophytes or land plants, only bryophytes, lycophytes and ferns retain a free-living gametophyte, which has few, microscopical characters the taxonomist can use for identification. These gametophytes show a great resistibility to unfavourable growing conditions and may persevere as sterile, indeterminable plants over decades and centuries.We intend to inventory the diversity of free-living gametophytes of liverworts and ferns in southern Ecuador as starting point for a database of comparative gene sequences in order to create a tool for reliable and accessible determination. By comparing gene sequences of sporophytes (or sporophyte bearing gametophytes) and sterile gametophytes along the altitudinal transect, we will fathom the real altitudinal range of the species. During the period of the project, selected sterile gametophytes colonies outside the optimum zone of the species will be screened annually for formation of sporophytes, which will be aligned with fluctuations in the climate, e.g., temperature peaks during El Niño seasons.The vegetation zones in the selected primary study site in southern Ecuador are putatively compressed by the “Massenerhebungseffekt”, thus making it an ideal study site to observe long-term shifts in the vegetation zones by global warming. Samples of gametophytes from an established transect in northern Ecuador will be used to corroborate our findings concerning the altitudinal sequence of the species.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Ecuador
• Participating Persons: Professorin Susana León-Yánez; Hugo Navarrete Zambrano; Dr. Martin Nebel; Professor Dr. Dietmar Quandt