DaLiBor: Database of Lichens and Bryophytes of the Czech Republic

Digital data on the distribution of species are crucial for vegetation studies, monitoring and nature protection. Despite the existence of databases, the majority of bryophyte and lichen occurrences in the Czech Republic are not widely available in a standard and machinereadable form. Therefore, we created a Database of Lichens and Bryophytes (DaLiBor; dalibor.ibot.cas.cz) under Creative Commons license (CC-BY-SA). DaLiBor provides an infrastructure for recording standardizing, validating and enhancing data, e.g. neural network record classification. The database is also a tool for sharing and analyzing records. Here, a descriptive analysis of 596,935 DaLiBor records, composed of 473,690 (79.4%) bryophytes and 123,245 (20.6%) lichens, is presented. There are bryophyte records for the whole the Czech Republic, but there are no lichen records for large areas. The records of the spatial distribution of bryophytes and lichens in the Czech Republic were evaluated, which confirmed the importance of protected areas for biodiversity. There were more records of epiphytic and epixylic species at high altitudes than of saxicolous and terricolous species, which are mainly recorded at low altitudes. Fagus sylvatica was the tree with the highest number of recorded taxa for both bryophytes and lichens. The highest number of records, including red-listed species, originates from natural beech and managed coniferous forests. Three cases that benefited from DaLiBor standardized data are presented: (i) the species distribution model helped find six new localities for Dicranum majus and Polytrichastrum alpinum within a single field visit; (ii) Analysis of bryophyte and lichen species abundances in time revealed a high percentage of acidophilous species and spread of nitrophilous species in current bryophyte and lichen communities; (iii) DaLiBor is the main source of data for the online interactive Atlas of Czech lichens (dalib.cz).