Jurga Motiejūnaitė Institute of Botany

1. BOTANICAL DIVERSITY STUDIES AT THE INSTITUTE OF BOTANY (VILNIUS, LITHUANIA), STATE, SCOPE AND PROBLEMS Jurga Motiejūnaitė Institute of Botany

2. Research on botanical diversity in Lithuania dates back to the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th century, though it achievedreal development in the 20th century. After the Second World War, studies on plant and vegetation as well as fungal diversity were mainly concentrated at the Institute of Botany (founded in 1959).

3. OBJECTS STUDIED Botanical diversity is studied at various levels: organism (genetic), species and community level. Diversity studies are focused on vascular plants, bryophytes, algae and fungi. Plant pathogenic bacteria and viruses are under study as well, but the research is more concentrated on economic impact;microorganisms occurring in natural ecosystems receive little attentionso far.

4. PRESENT STATE OF KNOWLEDGE VASCULAR PLANTS AND BRYOPHYTES Though first records of botanical diversity in Lithuania date back to the end of the 18th century, state of knowledge is very unequal for different organism groups. Best investigated are vascular plants (1350 native species are known at present) and only ca. 30 additions of new species were made since the publication of Lithuanian Flora (1959-1980). New records were mirrored in the international publication "Flora of the Baltic countries" (1993-2003). Species distribution, dynamics and occurring threats are relatively well known for vascular plants.

5. Data on vascular plants is soundly based on herbarium collections – ca. 56 000 specimens in BILAS herbarium, large part of the data is digitized (BRAHMS Database). Bryophytes are also relatively well-covered. BILAS holds collection of ca. 13 000 specimens of mosses and liverworts. Research at the Institute of Botany is mainly concentrated on mosses. According to the published moss flora (Jukonienė, 2003), 355 species are known in Lithuania; their distribution is relatively well studied. Vascular plants are studied for their genetic resources (genofund of local medicinal and fruit plants) and investigated at the community level. Phytosociological studies resulted in so far the only volume of "Vegetation of Lithuania", however, vast database on Lithuanian plant communities is kept at the Institute of Botany in electronic format (TURBOWEG) - in total ca. 3500 relevés.

6. FUNGI Knowledge of fungal diversity in Lithuania is significantly lower than that of vascular plants. However, mycobiota is currently under intensive research, various groups and aspects are studied. At present ca. 6400 fungal species (including lichens) are reported from the country. Large part of these reports was made by the researchers of the Institute of Botany. They are represented by ca. 59 000 specimens at the BILAS herbarium and ca. 200 permanent preparations (aquatic and Laboulbenioid fungi), which, however, still await digitization.

7. Strong impetus for studies of fungal diversity was launch of the project "Mycota Lithuaniae" in the mid-eighties of the 20th century. It aims to summarise research on Lithuanian mycobiota and to publish fungal flora in 35 books (14 volumes) till the year 2016. At present 14 books are published, covering 2573 fungi and fungi-like species of Basidiomycetes, Ascomycetes (including lichenized species), mitosporic fungi and myxomycetes. However, the work on inventory of fungal species is still going on with a high rate: during the last decade reports on ca. 1000 fungal species new to Lithuania appeared in printed papers.

8. ALGAE Research on algal diversity is carried out exceptionally on hydrobionts. Main groups concerned are Charophycean algae, diatoms, Cyanoprocaryotes and Chlorococcous green algae. In total, ca. 2000 species are known at present. Ca. 400 specimens are kept in form of permanent preparations (Diatoms) and ca. 300 specimens – as herbarium collections (Charophytes). This data is not summarised and not digitized yet. Inventory of algal diversity is still in an on-going stage.

9. SCOPE Though main scope of biodiversity investigations at the Institute of Botany concern Lithuanian area, some projects or fortuitous studies cover territories outside the country. Results of joint research together with botanists from other countries resulted in publications supplementing biodiversity data in Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Russia and Ukraine (Adamonytė & Vimba, 2000; Vimba & Adamonytė, 2000; Motiejūnaitė & Piterāns, 1998; Adamonytė, 2000; Halonen et al., 2000, Motiejūnaitė & Prigodina-Lukošienė 2002, Kukwa & Motiejūnaitė, 1999; Gudžinskas, 1990, 1991, 1992; Ryla, 2002; Motiejūnaitė et al., 1999). Botanists of the Institute of Botany take part in joint projects of the Baltic sea region diversity projects (Flora of the Baltic countries; Intercalibration and distribution of diatoms in the Baltic sea). Mycologists from the Institute of Botany take part in large-scale biodiversity research projects, covering also extra-European territories, like Planet Biodiversity Inventories: Global Biodiversity of Mycetozoans; Subproject 6: Kazakhstan-2004 and All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park).

10. Taxonomy and systematics are other aspects of world-wide diversity studies. Systematic revisions were performed in several groups of fungi (Kutorga & Hawksworth, 1997; Markovskaja, 2003) and plants (Ryla et al., 2002), new species were also described (Raitviir & Kutorga, 2002; Treigienė & Mel'nik, 2002; Adamonytė, 2003). New hyphomycete species: Cordana lithuanica Markovskaja, Mycotaxon 87: 181, 2003

11. PROBLEMS Probably the most important problem is, that rate of environmental changes, related to economical changes in Lithuania is significantly higher than the rate of botanical diversity inventory and monitoring. Shortage of feedback with society and subsequently with administrative and financing organisations is another grave problem, because from this low or none at all national financing of biodiversity research projects and none-existent general policy for such financing ensues. As national science financing in Lithuania is closely accorded to general EU policies, certain reproach is to be addressed to European community: almost all EU-financed biodiversity-related projects are network type. Networks are intended to create information net between scientists and organisations and to create common access to collections and databases. But, remembering unequal research level in different countries and different organism groupsas well as intensively changing environment, we might finally end with very much outdated knowledge, not compatible for common networks. Therefore, at least SOME MONEY should go for OBTAINING BIODIVERSITY DATA not only for its sharing and dissemination.

12. Acknowledgements Sincere gratitude is extended to Dr. Jūratė Kasperovičienė and Ms. Judita Koreivienė (Laboratory of Hydrobotany) for supplying data on algae diversity studies, also to Dr. doc. Ernestas Kutorga (Laboratory of Mycology) for allowing to employ the data on mycological research in Lithuania. All researchers of the Institute of Botany, who helped to prepare this presentation and whose studies make base for botanical diversity knowledge in Lithuania are thanked for their work.