The humble moss carries a surprising amount of impact for being such a
little plant, more like a lush blanket than a forest or pasture. Researchers
have just recently learned how important this varied collection of tiny
plants is to ecosystems throughout the world in an exciting new study.
David Eldridge, an ecologist at the University of New South Wales in
Australia, exclaims, "We were astounded to find that
mosses were
doing all these amazing things."
Eldridge and colleagues estimated populations of the plant cover an
astounding 9.4 million square kilometers across the sorts of habitats
evaluated after sampling mosses from more than a hundred sites spanning
eight distinct ecosystems. This is around the size of Canada or China.
These ancient creatures, which are the
ancestors of all currently existing plants, have simpler structures than their more recent offspring, with sprigs
full of small leaves that are often only one cell thick. However, it does
not lessen their power.
According to Eldridge, "Mosses don't have the plumbing that a typical plant
does, such as a xylem and a phloem, which water travels through.
But moss obtains its water from the atmosphere in order to exist.
Additionally, certain mosses curl as they become dry, like those in the arid
regions of Australia, but they do not perish—instead, they continue to exist
in suspended animation. We've sprayed dead mosses with water after they'd
been in a package for 100 years and watched them spring to life. They don't
have cells that break down as other plants do.
In each of the regions they analyzed, the researchers compared soils with
and without moss, and they discovered that mossy soils had increased
nutrient mobility, enhancing the cycling of everything from nitrogen and
phosphate to organic matter. Additionally, moss serves as a reservoir for
nutrients, including carbon, which now prevents 6.43 billion metric tons of
this essential but troublesome element from entering our oversaturated
atmosphere.
Eldridge
says, "You've got all the global emissions from land use change, like grazing,
clearing vegetation, and agricultural activities."
We believe that mosses absorb six times as much carbon dioxide as trees,
hence the benefit is not equal but rather six times more.
Additionally, the study discovered that mosses appear to keep infections
under control. According to studies, moss-inhabited soils included less
potential plant pathogens, and remarkably, the microbiomes of mossy
environments contained fewer antibiotic-resistant genes than those of bare
ground.
Eldridge and colleagues speculate
in their research
that increases in soil carbon under mosses may lessen microbial competition
and their need to create genes for antibiotic resistance.
For a succession of plant development that results in increasingly complex
ecosystems, moss's shallow root tangles help hold the soil together. Moss
also supports the preservation of surface microclimates.
In especially in regions where trees don't grow, such deserts and tundra,
high densities of mat and turf mosses, including
Sphagnum, Hylocomium, and Ptilium, contribute the most to soil biodiversity and
ecosystems.
Moss is one of the first organisms to reappear following severe disruptions
like volcanic eruptions, coming in second to cyanobacteria and algae.
"What we show in our research is that where mosses are present, you have a
greater level of soil health, such as more carbon and more nitrogen," says
Eldridge in
closing.
"Mosses may well provide the ideal vehicle to launch the recovery of
severely degraded urban and natural area soils," the study concluded.
This research was published in
Nature Geoscience.
