Development of a moss database based on ecological indicator values as a tool for urban greening planning

The present work is located in the field of urban greening and focuses on vertical greening with mosses on building facades. For this purpose, a database-supported approach was developed to determine the cultivation requirements of mosses on the basis of the Ellenberg system of ecological indicator values, whereby an existing classification of mosses by Düll and Düll-Wunder was used and transferred to a Microsoft ® Access database. The database enables differentiated filtering according to botanical and German name, moss types (deciduous moss or liverwort) as well as individual or combined indicator values of the categories light, temperature, continentality, moisture and reaction on a scale of 1–9 and can be extended by additional information such as image material as well as by the integration of further species; the database currently comprises moss-specific indicator values of 510 mosses. Various applications have been tested to derive cultivation requirements, including the statistical evaluation of the overall distribution according to ecological indicator values as well as practical functions such as the identification of optimal environmental conditions for certain moss species and the selection of suitable species for given site conditions. Overall, the database provides a method to support greening approaches with mosses by enabling the identification of suitable sites and the development of technical systems or substrates that provide optimal conditions for specific species, while allowing a data-driven selection of suitable moss species for defined greening sites.