RIGA, Mar 10 (LETA) - In the past four years, participants of Latvia's nature census have discovered 52 new species as they surveyed meadows, inland and coastal dunes, lakes, rivers, caves, rock outcrops, bogs and forests, the project's assistant manager Ilze Reinika from the Nature Conservation Agency told LETA. 

The new species discovered during the nature census include two plant species, seven moss and liverworth species, 12 lichen species, 15 slime mold species and 16 fungi species. Some of these species are rare not only in the Baltics but also in all Europe. 

Reinika said that the number of discoveries made across various groups of organisms reveal how much each of them has been researched already. For instance, Latvia's wild plants have been relatively well researched, so the census has only added a few new species. Meanwhile, slime molds are organisms that until recently were little researched. As many as 15 new slime mold species have been found in Latvia in the past four years.

Irisa Mukane, head of the nature census project, said that along with new species, experts also found new habitats and biotopes of the already known species, as well as various unique sites and objects. 

More than half of the new species were discovered in the fourth and final year of the nature census. Most of them were found in Gauja National Park while surveying rock outcrops on the banks of the River Gauja.