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Moss is vital to the planet

14.05.2023

More like a green carpet than a forest or pasture, the humble moss has amazing power to be such a small plant. In a new study, researchers have discovered how important this diverse group of small plant plants is to ecosystems around the world.

Using moss samples from more than 9,4 sites in eight different ecosystems, scientists at the University of New South Wales, Australia have calculated that the plant's populations cover a stunning XNUMX million square kilometers in the environmental types studied. This can be compared to the size of China or Canada.

Ancestors of all modern living plants, these ancient organisms have a more simplistic structure than their more modern descendants, with twigs filled with tiny leaves, typically only one cell thick. But that doesn't make them any less powerful.

Moss does not have the plumbing that a normal plant called xylem and phloem have, through which water moves. But moss survives by collecting water from the atmosphere. And some mosses, such as those found in the arid regions of Australia, curl up when they dry out, but don't die—they live in a suspended state forever. Scientists took moss from a bag after 100 years, sprinkled it with water and watched it come to life. Their cells do not break down, as in ordinary plants.

The researchers compared soils with and without moss in each of the study areas and found greater nutrient movement in the moss soil, increasing the cycling of everything from nitrogen and phosphorus to organic matter. Moss also acts as a storage reservoir for nutrients, including carbon, currently holding about 6,43 billion metric tons of this vital but problematic element from our oversaturated atmosphere.

Experts have found that mosses seem to hide potential pathogens. Tests revealed fewer potential plant pathogens in the soils where the moss lived, and incredibly antibiotic-resistant genes were less common in the microbiomes of moss habitats compared to ungrown areas.

Increasing the carbon content of the soil under the moss could reduce microbial competition and their need to produce antibiotic-resistant genes.

The shallow tangles of moss roots help hold the soil together, providing a stable surface for consistent plant growth, resulting in more complex ecosystems. Moss helps maintain the surface microclimate.

High densities of matted and soddy mosses such as Sphagnum, Hylocomium and Ptilium contribute most to soil biodiversity and ecosystems, especially in areas where trees do not grow like deserts and tundra. And after big disturbances like volcanic eruptions, moss is one of the first organisms to come back after cyanobacteria and algae.

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