Cryptogamic diversity, biology and conservation on South Atlantic Islands

海洋岛屿（即从未与大陆相连的岛屿）是进化和海洋学过程的天然实验室，也是理解大陆环境中这些过程的关键。传统上被视为迁徙的死胡同，现在认为这些岛屿可能是有效传播物种的“动态避难所”和“迁徙垫脚石”，如产孢子植物（苔藓，地钱，金鱼藻，蕨类植物和石松类统称为隐花植物）。因此，隐花植物是了解海洋岛屿地理的关键陆生植物;它们是主要的殖民者，因此是跟踪生态演替和土壤发育的哨兵生物，与许多开花植物不同，它们几乎都是通过风传播的繁殖自然到达的，而不是通过人类引进。南大西洋的海洋岛屿包括Ascension，圣赫勒拿和特里斯坦-达库尼亚（均为英国海外领土）以及巴西的费尔南多-迪诺罗尼亚和特林达德。我们正在组建一个由英国和巴西科学家组成的团队，他们已经在其中一些岛屿上拥有相当丰富的工作经验，对这些岛屿的隐花植物多样性和隐花植物学进行首次全面研究。这项工作将有助于制定生物多样性行动计划和保护战略，并使人们认识到这些岛屿是监测和了解气候变化影响的关键地点。我们的研究方案将包括广泛的实地工作，再加上彻底的分类分析，将导致对巴西和英国南大西洋海洋岛屿的物种丰富度和多样性的第一次全面评估。主要产出将是五个岛屿的权威性物种核对表;费尔南多-迪诺罗尼亚群岛的插图植物群，就像已经为圣赫勒拿和Ascension岛出版的插图一样;提高公众认识的通俗文章;分类学修订和同行审查期刊上关于岛屿植物地理学的文章。这些产出将提供基本的基线数据，以便：1）向岛屿游客强调和宣传隐花植物植物群的重要性; 2）使保护工作更有针对性，例如费尔南多-迪诺罗尼亚是教科文组织指定的世界遗产; 3）为长期监测气候变化和人为活动对岛屿生物多样性的影响提供重要的参考资料; 4）为英国和巴西合作伙伴在岛屿植物地理学方面的联合研究计划和资金申请奠定基础，包括植物区系的起源，它们的进化，特有性和生殖生物学。在这些活动中，还通过讲习班和实地工作，为巴西的早期职业科学家和养护人员举办了一个重要的培训方案。这将使新一代的巴西科学家能够进行独立的、最先进的隐花植物研究。

Oceanic islands (i.e. islands that have never been connected to a continent) are natural laboratories of evolutionary and biogeographic processes and key to understanding these in continental settings. Seen traditionally as migratory dead ends, it is now thought that these islands may instead represent 'dynamic refugia' and 'migratory stepping stones' for species that are effective dispersers, such as spore-producing plants (mosses, liverworts, hornworts, ferns and lycopods collectively known as cryptogams). Thus, cryptogams are the key terrestrial plants for understanding the biogeography of oceanic islands; they are primary colonists and hence are sentinel organisms for tracking ecological successions and soil development and, unlike many flowering plants, they have almost all arrived naturally by wind-borne propagules rather than as human introductions.The oceanic South Atlantic Islands include Ascension, St. Helena and Tristan da Cunha (all British Overseas Territories) and the Brazilian counterparts, Fernando de Noronha and Trindade. We are putting together a team of UK and Brazilian scientists who already have considerable experience of working on some of these islands to conduct the first comprehensive study of their cryptogamic diversity and biogeography. This work will enable the drawing up of biodiversity action plans, conservation strategies and lead to the recognition of the islands as key locations for monitoring and understanding the effects of climate change. Our research programme will include extensive field work, which coupled with thorough taxonomic analyses, will lead to the first comprehensive assessment of species richness and diversity of both Brazilian and British South Atlantic Oceanic Islands. Major outputs will be authoritative species checklists for the five islands; an illustrated Flora for Fernando de Noronha like those already published for St. Helena and Ascension Island; popular articles to increase public awareness; taxonomic revisions and articles on island biogeography in peer-reviewed journals. These outputs will provide essential baseline data that will: 1) highlight and publicize the importance of the cryptogamic flora to visitors of the islands; 2) allow for better informed and targeted conservation efforts- e.g. Fernando de Noronha is a UNESCO designated World Heritage Site; 3) provide key reference works for long-term monitoring of the effects of climate change and anthropogenic impacts on the biodiversity of the islands ; 4) form the basis for joint research programmes and funding applications by UK and Brazilian partners on island biogeography embracing the origins of the floras, their evolution, endemism and reproductive biology. Embedded in these activities is a major training programme for early career Brazilian scientists and conservation personnel through workshops and fieldwork. This will enable a new generation of Brazilian scientists to carry out independent, state-of-the-art cryptogamic research.