Patterns of vascular plants and bryophytes in Sardinian Mediterranean temporary ponds

The characterization of complex biodiversity patterns across ecosystems requires substantial effort, expertise, and financial resources. An approach to limit these challenges is offered by choosing proper indicators or surrogates as a shortcut to predict biodiversity changes in poorly investigated groups from groups where adequate information is available. Surrogate identification is primarily based on cross-taxon congruence analysis, and the surrogate strength depends on the taxonomic groups studied and the scale of analysis. Cross-taxon congruence analysis between vascular plants and bryophytes generated variable responses. The object of this research was to contribute to this debate comparing the patterns of vascular plant and bryophyte richness in an almost unknown habitat, i.e. Mediterranean temporary ponds at a small spatial scale, i.e. Sardinia. Vascular plant and bryophyte richness was assessed in 14 temporary ponds located on different substrata and under different climatic conditions. The Pearson correlation analysis was performed to compare the patterns of richness. Overall 137 vascular plants and 97 bryophytes were detected. Pearson coefficient was not significant. In the specific case vascular plant and bryophyte richness presented different patterns of distribution. As a consequence each taxa needs to be evaluated independently to address conservation issues.