BLM UT GSENM NLCS-NM/NCA GSENM Bryophyte Inventory Grant

The Great Basin Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (GBCESU) is a cooperative network, transcending political and institutional boundaries, which creates innovative opportunities for research, education, and technical assistance in support of the management and stewardship by partner agencies of the Great Basin natural, cultural, and social resources. The GBCESU has a unique collaborative relationship with research scientists, end users of research products, the public, and educators who are trained to bridge the gap between researchers, science users and educators.

This project is intended to provide an opportunity for an academic or non-profit research institution to conduct advanced, hands-on education in public land management through the inventory of the bryophytes (mosses, hornworts, and liverworts) of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Bryophytes are excellent indicators of climate change because they are generally adapted to very specific micro-climate regimes, especially substrate chemistry, humidity levels, precipitation timing and amount, and insolation. Mosses also play an important role in biological soil crusts, helping to absorb and retain water and stabilize soils. Biological soil crusts (cryptobiotic crusts) are identified as protected objects in the Monument’s Proclamation. Recent surveys in the Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument (NLCS) and Grand Canyon National Park (NPS) have shown that brypohyte flora on the Colorado Plateau can be extremely diverse: these surveys found 51 new species records for AZ and NV and at least four species new to science. Intensive multidisciplinary surveys (bioblitzes) in a small riparian area adjacent to GSENM (Deer Creek) found two moss species new to Utah, Anomobryum concinnatum and Rhynchostegium aquaticum, representing significant and unexpected range extensions. Large expanses of the Colorado Plateau landscape support extensive populations of the arid-adapted moss species Syntrichia caninervis and S. ruralis, which can grow on exposed soil or in association with crusts. Species in the moss genus Grimmia are very common on many rock types throughout the region. Aquatic bryophytes found in streams and associated with springs are also important components of the food base for invertebrates and fish.