Publications

Cryptogamic flora of the Chagos Archipelago. In: Ecology of the Chagos Archipelago

The 1996 Chagos Expedition provided the first opportunity to study the archipelago's terrestrial cryptogamic flora in detail. Seventeen of the 55 islands were ecologically investigated, some in more detail than others, and lists and representative collections of lichens, mosses, hepatics, fungi, algae and cyanobacteria have been assembled for many of them. Although the islands have a low biodiversity for most of these groups, as would be expected in terms of their relatively young age, remoteness and small terrestrial surface areas, those organisms that are present are often found in abundance and play significant ecological roles. The status of taxa on each island investigated in detail has been determined: there appears to be a good correlation between total bryophyte and lichen biodiversity and island size, despite the fact that Cocos nucifera is such an important substratum for cryptogamic plants and its presence on all islands studied provides a consistently high associated species count.

Authors

Seaward Mark .

Year

1

ISBN-13

9781841030036

Keywords

terrestrial flora(other), cryptogamic fauna, lichens, mosses, hepatics, fungi, algae, cyanobacteria