Atewa Range Forest Reserve Bryophytes dataset, Ghana

Study Extent

The survey was carried out within the Atewa forest with local knowledge used to target areas of probable high bryophyte diversity, notably streams, hill summits (where cloud gathers and creates increased humidity) and small areas of swamp forest. However, coverage was far from comprehensive, and the species recorded represent no more than the results of targeted sampling in a very large area of forest.

Sampling

Species were identified and collected as the team walked along to target areas. GPS coordinates and habitats of species encountered were identified and recorded. Those that could not readily identified were collected for further identification. While some of the more common bryophytes were identified in the field, most taxa were identified later by Nick G. Hodgetts from collected specimens. Some specimens were sent to specialists for identification or confirmation. A wide range of literature was used, but Wigginton (2004) was a particularly useful tool for the identification of liverworts. Specimens have been lodged in the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (E), the herbarium in the Botany Department at the University of Ghana (GC), A Rocha Ghana and the personal herbarium of Nick G.Hodgetts Nomenclature follows Wigginton (2009) for the liverworts and O’Shea (2006) for the mosses, except where otherwise indicated. Family placement and order follow the classification on the Southern Illinois University Carbondale website (http://bryophytes.plant.siu.edu/index.html), in which the liverwort classification is based on Crandall-Stotler et al. (2009) and the moss classificationon Goffinet et al. (2008).

Quality Control

The nomenclature was confirmed using the Global name resolver https://resolver.globalnames.org/ to obtain both the scientific name and taxonomic order with source confirmed using the GBIF backbone taxonomy. The Canadensys coordinate conversion: http://data.canadensys.net/tools/coordinates was used to convert the GPS locations to decimal latitudes and decimal longitudes.

Method steps

1. The survey was carried out within the Atewa forest with local knowledge used to target areas of probable high bryophyte diversity, notably streams, hill summits (where cloud gathers and creates increased humidity) and small areas of swamp forest.Species were identified and collected as the team walked along to target areas. GPS coordinates and habitats of species encountered were identified and recorded. Those that could not readily identified were collected for further identification.The nomenclature was confirmed using the Global name resolver https://resolver.globalnames.org/ to obtain both the scientific name and taxonomic order with source confirmed using the GBIF backbone taxonomy. The Canadensys coordinate conversion: http://data.canadensys.net/tools/coordinates was used to convert the GPS locations to decimal latitudes and decimal longitudes. The data file was darwin core formatted to enable it be published on the GBIF IPT platform.

The data was collected in March, 2014 in the Atewa Range Forest Reserve located in the Eastern Region of Ghana.