Our results support the idea that the liverwort flora of the coastal Atlantic Forest in southeastern Brazil comprises part of a regional pool of species whose establishment and survival are determined by abiotic filters acting in those habitats. The low similarities between localities and the high numbers of indicator species suggest that the liverwort vegetation has a deterministic distribution at the regional level – which corroborates their use as bioindicators of vegetation types and of environmental conditions. Although species distributions are principally determined by environmental niches, geographical distances (dispersal limitation) are important in regions such as oceanic islands and coastal mountains.