Background

Following the appearance of the Bryophyte Red Data Book in 2001 (Church et al., 2001), it became clear that conservation of threatened bryophytes would best be served by a more active system than could be achieved by a one-off book publication. This has been attempted for vascular plants through the Threatened Plant Database Project, a co-operative venture between the statutory nature conservation agencies, Plantlife and the Botanical Society of the British Isles. The idea was to create a ‘live’ database of records of threatened plants that could be kept up-to-date, that would contain information on the state of populations of threatened species, and that would service their conservation by informing initiatives such as the UK Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP). Much good work was done during the course of this project, and also many valuable lessons learned. It was considered that it was time to do something similar for bryophytes, and consequently a three-year contract has been set up with English Nature, Scottish Natural Heritage, the Countryside Council for Wales, the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, the Biological Records Centre (BRC) and Plantlife to work with the BBS to run a Threatened Bryophyte Database (TBDB).

Aims

It is intended to keep up-to-date, detailed records of target species, in order to track the condition of their populations, and so inform conservation action. The aims of the project are:

• to collate detailed records of target species (including population information) on a database;
• to incorporate records from recent and ongoing survey work (e.g. arable bryophytes project, Plantlife conservation and survey programmes);
• to feed information to UK BAP lead partners and conservation agencies;
• to inform conservation programmes;
• to provide information from conservation programmes to bryologists and receive their recommendations and other input;
• to co-ordinate a network of bryologists to cover the most threatened species (‘Moss Minders’) and other selected species (see below);
• to obtain information from bryophyte research affecting threatened species (taxonomic changes etc.) and get it into the conservation community quickly;
• to construct as comprehensive a bibliography as possible for each target species;
• to update the dot-distribution maps presented in the Atlas of the bryophytes of Britain and Ireland (Hill et al., 1991, 1992, 1994); however, the TBDB project only covers England, Scotland and Wales (not Ireland).

The database will also be a useful resource for the production of bryophyte Floras and studies on population dynamics and ecology.

Species covered

The target species for the database are essentially all those species identified as being ‘of conservation concern’ (see Table 1). These include Red Data List species (i.e. Critically Endangered CR, Endangered EN, Vulnerable VU, Extinct EX), Data Deficient species (DD), species just missing out on Red List status (Near Threatened NT), and species listed in legislation (Schedule 8 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act (WCA), UK BAP priority species, Annex II of the EU Habitats Directive (HD) and Appendix I of the Bern Convention (BC)). The raw material for the TBDB is the database used to produce the Red Data Book.

Table 1. Species of conservation concern that will be covered by the TBDB project (abbreviations are explained in previous paragraph)

This list is not immutable, and will be reviewed regularly. It may be expanded at some stage to include other species for which Britain has an international responsibility, such as endemics and Atlantic species. The most important of the target species, purely from the point of view of current conservation practice, are the BAP priority species, as the government is signed up to meet certain targets for their conservation. Thus, a great deal of effort is going into recording populations of these species, and recommending and implementing management prescriptions to ensure their survival and (where appropriate) recovery. The TBDB can service these targets.

In addition, a small selection of Nationally Scarce (NS) and declining species have been chosen for special treatment, in order to clarify their status. These are listed in Table 2. We need information on the current status of these species. Most of them were selected because of the large number of pre-1950 and undated records in the distribution maps in the Atlas. The populations represented by these records (and more recent records too) need to be investigated to see if the apparent decline is real or not. Are they going to be on tomorrow’s Red List, or are they just under-recorded? Are there further populations that have not found their way into the Atlas? To begin with, we have picked a small number of species from this second list to act as a pilot, to see if we can use the TBDB project to get a handle on them. These are:

Throughout Great Britain:

Oedipodium griffithianum
Rhytidium rugosum
Thuidium abietinum (both sub-species)

South-east England and the Midlands only:

Climacium dendroides
Plagiomnium cuspidatum
Rhodobryum roseum

Table 2. Nationally scarce species that will be covered by the TBDB project

How can BBS members contribute to the TBDB project and benefit from it?

There are three main ways in which BBS members can engage with the TBDB project:

1. ‘Moss Minders’. English Nature and the Natural History Museum have come up with the idea of ‘Moss Minders’, similar to Plantlife’s Flora Guardians. A Moss Minder would keep an eye on a particular site, or series of sites, for a rare species or group of rare species, regularly monitor the population(s), and alert conservation bodies if they came under threat. BBS members are hereby invited to take on a species, or a site, to ‘mind’. Guidance notes on the Moss Minder scheme will be produced as soon as possible. If you would like to be a Moss Minder, contact me and I will send you whatever information is currently on the database. In many - most! - cases, available information is inadequate, and there is plenty of scope for original and imaginative work on virtually all the species listed, although most BAP priority species are well covered at the moment.

2. Record exchange. The database is designed to be ‘owned’ by the Society, and so all the records (with the exception of a few highly sensitive species) are available for the use of members, whether for conservation purposes, Flora writing or other bona fide uses. Ultimately they will be available electronically through BRC via the National Biodiversity Network Gateway, but meanwhile I can answer all reasonable requests.

To achieve an up-to-date and active database, your records are needed for all the species listed in Tables 1 and 2 above. It is important to note that records for the TBDB require a higher level of data than records of common species or records that are just to be used for mapping purposes. The minimum data requirements for each record are:

• Species name
• Locality
• Vice-county
• Grid reference (if possible to 10 figures, determined with a GPS, e.g. AB12345678)
• Date
• Recorder (and determiner, if different)
• Number and location of specimen (if any)
• Habitat, substrate, associates
• Abundance - notes on population, e.g. a count of the number of shoots, extent of colony, or whatever is appropriate for the species
• Observations on health of population and any threats

In addition it would be extremely useful to provide sketch maps and even digital photographs to show the location of populations. If you can send records electronically, that is preferred. Otherwise I am perfectly happy to cope with written records posted to me. All contributors will in return receive regular reports and updates on species in their area of interest (whether geographical or taxonomic).

3. Taking part in a survey of the six ‘pilot’ species listed above. If there are records of any of these nationally scarce or declining species in your area, follow them up, and see if they are still there. If you have new information on any of them, send it in. The data requirements for these are the same as for the other species.

Please help make this project a success by contributing to it in any way you can. Your records can directly help the conservation of the plants we hold dear! Meanwhile I will be contacting county recorders directly, and trawling through other databases, reports, Floras and herbaria to attempt to keep the database as up-to-date as possible.

References

Church JM, Hodgetts NG, Preston CD, Stewart NF. 2001. British Red Data Books. 2. Mosses and liverworts. Peterborough: Joint Nature Conservation Committee.
Hill MO, Preston CD, Smith AJE. 1991. Atlas of the bryophytes of Britain and Ireland. Volume 1. Liverworts (Hepaticae and Anthocerotae). Colchester: Harley Books.
Hill MO, Preston CD, Smith AJE. 1992. Atlas of the bryophytes of Britain and Ireland. Volume 2. Mosses (except Diplolepidae). Colchester: Harley Books.
Hill MO, Preston CD, Smith AJE. 1994. Atlas of the bryophytes of Britain and Ireland. Volume 3. Mosses (Diplolepidae). Colchester: Harley Books.

Nick Hodgetts, 55 Norton Street, Grantham, Lincs, NG31 6BX; e-mail: n.hodgetts@ntlworld.com.