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The scientific research in the GPNP: mosses, liverworts and periodic monitoring
The ‘Habitats Directive’ (92/43/EEC) is the real pillar for the conservation of the European Union's biodiversity, which has created the Natura 2000 Network of protected sites. The Gran Paradiso area is both a National Park and a site of the Natura 2000 Network (ZSC/ZPS) hosting some species and habitats of Community interest, included in special annexes of the Directive.
For these reasons, the PNGP carries out periodic monitoring and reports (every 6 years) on all the Directive species and habitats, including some moss and liverwort species (bryophytes in the broadest sense) of particular scientific and conservation interest.
More than 500 species of bryophytes are known in the PNGP and among these 3 fall under Annex II of the Directive: Buxbaumia viridis, Scapania carinthiaca and Riccia breidleri. The first live exclusively on stumps and rotting dead wood in the forest (forest necromass) [https://foresta.sisef.org/contents/?id=efor3683-017&lang=it]; the third grows in temporary pools (which dry out) between about 2000 and 2600 m altitude, only on siliceous substrates.
This bryophyte has a very short growing season, as the puddles are long occupied first by snow, then by water, and only dry out in late summer. This is why Riccia breidleri is an interesting indicator of climate change, as the increasingly recurring high mountain heat waves and droughts affect the presence and duration of water in the pools.
If these, due to the climate, remain dry for longer, they can also be colonised by other, more competitive plant species, which are no longer held back by the persistent presence of water.