Four new species of Coenogonium (Ascomycota: Ostropales) from vulnerable forest ecosystems in Puerto Rico

Four new species of Coenogonium are described from the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico—C. aurantiacum Mercado-Díaz & Lücking, C. borinquense Mercado-Díaz & Lücking, C. dimorphicum Mercado-Díaz & Lücking and C. portoricense Mercado-Díaz & Lücking. All were discovered in small and high...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Bryologist Vol. 116; no. 4; pp. 373 - 381
Main Authors Mercado-Díaz, Joel A, Gould, William A, González, Grizelle, Lücking, Robert
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York Botanical Garden Bronx, NY 10458-5126 The American Bryological and Lichenological Society, Inc 01.12.2013
American Bryological and Lichenological Society
Subjects
Ascospores
Biodiversity
Biodiversity conservation
Biodiversity hotspots
Biological taxonomies
Dry forests
endemism
Forest ecology
Forest ecosystems
island biota
Lichens
New species
Thallus
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Summary:Four new species of Coenogonium are described from the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico—C. aurantiacum Mercado-Díaz & Lücking, C. borinquense Mercado-Díaz & Lücking, C. dimorphicum Mercado-Díaz & Lücking and C. portoricense Mercado-Díaz & Lücking. All were discovered in small and highly fragmented forest remnants of relatively rare Puerto Rican forest ecosystems, Pterocarpus wetlands and non-calcareous dry forests. The discoveries are discussed relative to the conservation status of these threatened ecosystems, the need to catalogue biodiversity before it vanishes, and the notion that endemism in lichenized fungi in island biotas is potentially much higher than hitherto assumed. A previous world-wide key to Coenogonium is updated to accommodate the new taxa.
ISSN:0007-2745
1938-4378
DOI:10.1639/0007-2745-116.4.373