THREE BRYOPHYTE SPECIES NEW TO TÜRKIYE AND SOUTHWEST ASIA

As a result of extensive bryophyte surveys across the different parts of the Karçal Mountain, Türkiye's first biosphere reserve area, Artvin region (Caucasus) in the East Black Sea region of Türkiye, Jungermannia pumila , Scapania uliginosa and Heterocladium flaccidum found as new to Türkiye. Moreover, these taxa are the first time reported for bryophyte flora of South-West Asia in this paper. Descriptions, illustrations, distributions, ecological characteristics, and comparisons with morphologically similar taxa were also provided.


Introduction
The Karçal Mountains, which range from the Çoruh Valley to the Georgian border, start at 500 m and reach an altitude of 3545 m. (Fig. 1).Sub-Mediterranean climate prevails in the Çoruh Valley, while the northern part of the Karçal Mountains has a Black Sea climate.In the southern part of the Karçal Mountains, a climate where Sub-Mediterranean and continental climates intersect is present, with the effect coming from the Çoruh Valley, and continental climate prevails in the eastern part and the higher parts of the Karçal Mountains (Eminağaoğlu, 2015; Fig. 1).
The Camili Biosphere Reserve Area including Karçal Mountain was included in the World Network of Biosphere Reserves by the International Co-ordinating Council of the Programme MaB in 2005, and it subsequently became the first and only biosphere reserve area in Türkiye (Mittermeier et al., 2005; Url 1, in https://en.unesco.org/biosphere/eu-na).The reserve is located in North-Eastern Türkiye (Fig. 1) and covers altitudes ranging from 400 to 3500 m, with an area of 25.222 hectares (Pouya and Demireş Özkul, 2010).The Camili Valley (inc.Karçal Mountain) is part of the Caucasus region, which is one of the 34 biodiversity hotspots in the world (Mittermeier et al., 2005;Türkmen, 2023).*Corresponding author.E-mail: nevzatbatan@gmail.comThere are few studies (Kürschner et al., 2012) on the bryophytes of the Karçal Mountain, so it was chosen as the study area for the project and this study contains data from the project.

Material and Methods
The bryophyte samples were collected from different localities (various habitats and substrates) from the Karçal Mountain (Artvin) in 2022.The UTM VGS84 coordinate system was used to determine the coordinates.The bryophytes were identified by consulting keys (Smith, 1996(Smith, , 2004;;Paton, 1999;Damsholt, 2002;Frey et al., 2006;Guerra et al., 2018;Lüth, 2019;Hugonnot and Chavoutier, 2021).The status of these taxa was evaluated by reviewing the related literature for Türkiye (Ros et al., 2013;Erdağ and Kürschner, 2017;Hodgetts and Lockhart, 2020;Kürschner and Frey, 2020), and Southwest Asia (Kürschner and Frey, 2020).The study of Hodgetts et al. (2020) was followed in terms of nomenclature and synonyms.Voucher specimens of bryophyte taxa are kept in the private bryophyte collections of the author (Batan), Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Faculty of Science, Karadeniz Technical University, Trabzon, Türkiye.

Results and Discussion
Jungermannia pumila With.
Ecology: J. pumila grows in patches on damp, often shaded rocks.Also often as a pioneer on new surfaces of sandstone or even granite.Mostly at the base of stones and rock walls in small streams (Damsholt, 2002).Also, it occurs on moist or wet, mildly basic to acid, often shaded rocks and boulders, on thin soil over rocks, on sandy, gravelly or peaty soil and on silt or detritus on banks and rocks including limestone.Often near running water and sometimes intermittently submerged, and frequently as a pioneer species on soft-textured siliceous rock (PATON 1999;DIERΒEN 2001).Turkish specimens of three bryophytes were collected from Merata plateau, Karçal Mountain, Artvin (Türkiye), on sandy, gravelly soil, near running water, associated with Scapania irrigua (Nees) Nees, Diplophyllum taxifolium (Wahlenb.)Dumort., Solenostoma gracillimum (Sm.)R.M.Schust., Philonotis fontana (Hedw.)Brid., Platyhypnum smithii (Sw.)Ochyra and Ptychostomum schleicheri (DC.)J.R.Spence ex D.Bell & Holyoak.