BryoAlps -  Bryophyte diversity sampling across Vaud Alps

I started this project during my master thesis. Alain Vanderpoorten (ULiège) and I go each year in Vaud Alps in Switzerland to inventory all species living in 2*2m plots randomly selected across the landscape. We selected this area notably because fine-scale environmental predictors are available and several taxa have also been collected.

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For now, we have already sampled around 600 plots and found more than 300 bryophyte species.

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This project aims at answering several questions such as: Which factors drive bryophyte communities/bryophyte species presence? What will be the future suitable area of these species? Which area should we prioritize in a conservation perspective? and finally, at long term, we aim measuring the range shift of bryophyte species, which are good models to study climate change impact.