Selection of Important Bryophyte Areas in Hungary

Abstract

Until now 99 sites could be selected as important bryophyte areas on the basis of 125 populations of 26 European red-listed species and an additional three species protected by law in Hungary. Most of the species with confirmed recent occurrences have few existing populations. The most important habitats from the point of view of the conservation of European red-listed bryophytes are places with shaded rocks or rocks in streams in forest-covered mountainous areas, which maintain 30% of the existing Hungarian populations of European red-listed species. Saline-alkali and dry rocky grasslands and loess cliffs are also very important habitats in the preservation of submediterranean, continental, and subcontinental elements. Wet grasslands nowadays are of minor importance in the preservation of rarities as they are in very bad conditions mainly due to dry climatic periods of the last decades. Similarly, the number of populations of species living on decaying wood and tree bark is not high either.