-180

-180

90

-90

2013-10-18

2017-06-14

Kingdom

Plantae

0000-0002-8448-7623

ADMINISTRATIVE_POINT_OF_CONTACT

Terceira Island (area: 400.6 km2; elevation: 1,021.14 m) is one of the nine islands of the Azores archipelago, located in the North Atlantic, roughly at 38°43′49′′N 27°19′10′′W. The climate in the Azores is temperate oceanic, with regular and abundant rainfall, high levels of relative humidity and persistent western winds, mainly during the winter and autumn seasons. Terceira Island is known for the presence of some very important pristine areas at high elevation (Gabriel

and Bates 2005 ). However, few natural areas still remain at lower elevations, notably in Praia da Vitória

county. Three wetland areas, Paul da Praia da Vitória (PPV), Paul do Belo Jardim (PBJ) and Paul da Pedreira do Cabo da Praia (PPCP) were studied in this project.

Coastal vegetation dominates, namely Juncus acutus and still includes some arboreal cover by the native shrub Morella faya. The Erica-Morella coastal woodlands as described in Elias et al. 2016 are not present and the exotic invasive species Arundo donax is very common.

A network of three or four transects in each wetland (160 m x 2 m or 300 m x 2m), was sampled every 20 m, in sampling points (4 m ); each sampling point was searched for bryophytes, collecting a maximum of six samples/microplots (10 cm x 5 cm); three replicates from soil and three replicates from rock.

The data in this sampling event resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table (events) contains 508 records and one data table extension also exists (occurrence), with 899 records. The extension supplies extra information about a core record.

This study covers a small coastal area with 3.58 km extension between PPV and PPCP.

In each site, bryophytes were sampled during the summers of 2013, 2016 and 2017 using a combination of standardised methods that included, in each transect and at every 20 metres, an area delimited of 4m2. Each sampling point (quadrat) was carefully examined to collect three samples (replicates or microplots) for each of the substrates that could be colonized by bryophytes (soil, rock). The area collected in each replica (microplot) was 50 cm (10 cm x 5 cm). The maximum number of samples obtained per sampling point was six (three replicates of soil and three of rock), but many sampling points did not contain bryophytes, especially those that were placed in places periodically flooded with brackish waters. For each sample of 10 cm x 5 cm, the scales for the ecological variables were adapted from Gabriel and Bates 2005.

The correct identification of the sampled taxa is crucial. Keys and floras were used to identify the species, and their coverage (in %) was also estimated for each microplot. The main floras used were Smith 2004, Casas et al. 2006 for mosses and Paton 1999, Casas et al. 2009 for liverworts. Taxonomic keys provided by Schumacker and Váňa 2005 and field guides ( Atherton et al. 2010 , Llimona et al. 2004 ) were also consulted. Some important internet databases were also consulted, namely the Azorean Biodiversity Portal and TROPICOS to obtain taxonomic data and BBS Field Guide online pages, Bildatlas der Moose Deutschlands and Swissbryophytes to obtain morphological and ecological data. Nomenclature follows Gabriel et al. 2010 .

The colleagues Michele Aleffi (University of Camerino, Italy), Juana Maria González Mancebo (Universidade de La Laguna, spain) and Maria Manuela Pinheiro Sim-Sim (University of Lisbon) revised samples belonging to Grimmia, Didymodon and Cephaloziella.

Accumulation curves were performed and completeness was high for all sites when using the Jackknife first order estimator with values higher or equal to 74%.