OPUS: SYNTHESIS OF THE MOSSES OF THE TROPICAL ANDES

小生物在生态系统中起着至关重要的作用。这当然适用于苔藓，这是一种小型植物，可以迅速吸收雨水或雾中的水分，然后逐渐将水分释放回其环境，从而减缓水流，防止土壤侵蚀，并有助于防止山体滑坡和洪水冲下山坡。苔藓被认为在整个南美洲安第斯生态系统的山地森林和高山地区起着特别重要的作用。热带安第斯山脉是世界上苔藓物种最多样化的地区之一，但也是自然景观退化和破碎化的地方，加上冰川的迅速融化，正在对生态系统产生重大影响。识别和描述苔藓物种的多样性对于了解其生态作用和确保其在自然环境中的保护至关重要。该项目将为高度多样化的安第斯山脉生态系统提供1400多种苔藓物种的记录和总结。描述性文本和基于数据的收集，以及地图、照片和插图，将通过项目网页向科学界和一般公众提供。产品包括所有安第斯苔藓的完整分类描述，以及这些研究很少但重要的生物的图解在线指南。通过研讨会和直接合作，该项目将加强美国和南美科学家之间的科学联系，并为美国研究生和本科生提供国际研究经验。基于首席研究员30年的实地考察和调查，该项目将对安第斯苔藓的所有科、属和种进行全面的分类处理，并提供有关其生态、地理分布和观测的详细信息。该项目还将生成所有69个科和345个属的交互式识别密钥，这些密钥是从一个字符状态列表中生成的，并附有相应的插图。首席研究员将完成之前以草稿形式准备的物种插图，目标是绘制所有物种的三分之二，并制作新的插图，以提供中型和大型科和属的定义形态特征。在热带安第斯山脉，对大多数主要生物群体的物种多样性的精确估计一直是难以捉摸的。该项目将提供热带安第斯苔藓的完整描述，为目前未被描述或未被发现的多达500种物种提供新知识。

Small organisms can play crucial roles in ecosystems. This is certainly true of mosses, which are small plants that can quickly absorb water from rainfall or fog mist, and then gradually release the water back to their environment, thus moderating water flow, preventing soil erosion, and assisting in preventing landslides and flooding down mountain slopes. Mosses are believe to play an especially vital role in the mountain forests and the alpine regions throughout the Andean ecosystems of South America. The tropical Andes represent one of the world's most species diverse regions for mosses, but is also where degradation and fragmentation of the natural landscape, coupled with rapid melting of glaciers, is having a major impact on ecosystems. Identifying and describing the diversity of species of mosses is critical in order to understand their ecological roles and ensure their conservation in the natural environment. This project will provide documentation and summary of the more than 1400 moss species for the highly diverse, Andean mountain ecosystems. Descriptive text and data based collections, accompanied by maps, photographs and illustrations will be made accessible through a project webpage to the scientific community and general public. Products include a complete taxonomic description of all Andean mosses, as well as illustrated on-line guides to these poorly studied but important organisms. Through workshops and direct collaborations, this project will strengthen scientific connections between U.S. and South American scientists and provide international research experiences to U.S. graduate and undergraduate students. Based on 30 years of fieldwork and investigations by the principal investigator, this project will provide a thorough taxonomic treatment of all families, genera, and species of Andean mosses accompanied by detailed information on their ecology, geographical distribution and observations. The project will also produce interactive identification keys to all 69 families and 345 genera generated from a character state list accompanied by corresponding illustrations. The principal investigator will complete speciesIllustrations previously prepared in draft form, with the objective of having two thirds of all species illustrated, and produce new illustrative plates to provide defining morphological traits of medium and large families and genera. Precise estimates of species diversity for most major groups of organisms has been elusive for the tropical Andes. This project will provide a complete account of the tropical Andean mosses, providing new knowledge on up to 500 species that are currently undescribed or undiscovered.