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In boreal and northern temperate forests, the moss layer and ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi play important roles in carbon and nutrient cycling. ECM mycelium is present in the lower parts of the moss layer, but little is currently known about the interaction between these two key components of northern forest ecosystems. This thesis aims to address this knowledge gap and to improve our understanding of the mechanisms through which the moss layer and ECM fungi influence carbon and nutrient cycling. Nutrient transfer between litter and Scots pine seedlings in symbiosis with the ECM fungus Paxillus involutus (Batsch) Fr. was investigated in highly controlled microcosm experiments using, for the first time, intact moss and pine litter. In addition, moss removal plots were established in a Scots pine forest which allowed measurement of processes involved in carbon (C) and nutrient turnover and related variables. There was a close, reciprocal exchange of carbon and nutrients between the host plant and ECM mycelium colonising moss and pine litter (Chapter 2). This was greatly enhanced by intensive colonisation of moss litter, suggesting that mosses provide a key source of nutrients for ECM fungi and may facilitate transfer of photosynthetic C belowground. During almost 2 years of decomposition, moss tissue released more nitrogen (N) but retained more C than pine litter (Chapter 3), further highlighting the importance of the moss layer in providing nutrients for overstorey trees, and in the accumulation of recalcitrant C in soil. In addition to contributing directly to C cycling through inputs of recalcitrant C in litter, the moss layer can influence C cycling indirectly, by increasing soil microbial activity; CO2 efflux was on average 1.4 times greater from soil under the moss layer than from soil covered only in pine litter (Chapter 3). The results suggest that an indirect influence can occur via two pathways: through an insulating effect of the moss layer on soil temperature, and through inputs of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) leached from moss (Chapter 4), both of which may stimulate activity of soil microbes. These findings demonstrate the importance of both the moss layer and ECM fungi in carbon and nutrient cycling in boreal and northern temperate forests, and indicate that mosses provide a key pathway through which nutrients may bypass sequestration in saprotrophic microbial biomass and be transferred directly from plant tissue to ECM fungi and overstorey trees.

In arctic tundra ecosystems mosses dominant the vegetation in terms of productivity and diversity.  Despite this, mosses are often overlooked in studies of tundra ecology.  However, evidence from this thesis suggests that mosses maybe integral to the functioning of these systems.  Mosses insulate soil keeping it cooler than air temperature, an effect more apparent under deeper moss.  The effects of the moss layer on soil characteristics alter conditions for microbial populations resulting in higher nitrogen availability in soil under shallow moss.  This thesis shows that the role of mosses in determining vascular plant success may dictate many higher plant interactions.  There are both positive and negative effects of the moss layer on vascular plant growth.  The relationship between positive and negative impacts of the moss layer on vascular plants is species specific, meaning that moss cover may be a key determinate of vascular plant community structure.  Climatic warming and herbivory are important drivers of vegetation change in the Arctic.  This thesis shows that grazing by reindeer and grubbing by geese is detrimental to moss cover.  As mosses insulate the soil, a reduction in depth or integrity increases soil temperatures and enhances microbial activity and thus nitrogen availability.  This in conjunction with addition of nutrients from faeces enhances vascular plant productivity to the further detriment of mosses.  Warming increases soil temperature and accelerates decomposition, but has little affect on either biomass of moss or vascular plants.  Moss grubbing has a greater negative effect on mosses in a warmed environment.  This thesis concludes that mosses are integral to the current functioning of tundra heaths.

Thesis (doctoral)--Uppsala Universitet, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 28-33). Downloaded and printed Aug. 26, 2004; also available via the Internet.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 2008. / Title from title page screen (viewed on Sept. 23, 2009). Thesis advisor: J. Scott McElroy. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

The thesis is focused on the endangered wetland moss Hamatocaulis vernicosus. The studies included vegetation and chemical characteristics of the species? habitats and long-term reaction to management and other environmental factors, comparison of ecological requirements of H. vernicosus and two related species, differences of habitat preferences among some European regions (Bohemian Massif, Western Carpathians, Southern Europe) and among parts of the Czech Republic. Recent and historical distribution of the species was compared, including the quantification of all recent populations.

Please read the abstract in the 07summary part of this document / Thesis (PhD (Botany))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Plant Science / unrestricted

No description available.

This present paper is an attempt to open the field of bryology in the state of Utah. It is necessarily a limited treatment both from the standpointof the number of species and the area. It represents the efforts of one summer's collection and the preparation of the manuscript and illustrations. The collection was taken at Mount Timpanogosby the students of the Alpine Summer School of the Brigham Young University during the 1925 session.

As non-vascular, early land plants with an aquatic ancestry, mosses do not regulate internal water conditions separate from that of their environment and as a result, evolved mechanisms to survive in a terrestrial world out of water. Yet, there is a widely accepted dogma that moss reproductive success is solely dependent on rainfall events carrying swimming, bi-flagellate sperm across the landscape to reproductively mature and receptive female mosses--but this classic view of moss reproduction may be too simplistic. In this dissertation I test the assumptions of reproductive limitation in mosses and present novel findings in a basal, yet understudied terrestrial plant mating system. I find evidence of environmental desiccation tolerance in moss sperm, thus offering the potential for stress-tolerant gametes on the landscape possibly suited for various transport vectors, reminiscent of a pollen grain. To investigate the broad evolutionary implications of this newfound complexity in moss sexual reproduction, I tested classic tenets of plant-pollinator theory on the ancient mosses and their ubiquitous microarthropod inhabitants. Experimental results show that mosses and microarthropods are engaged in a "pollination-like" syndrome guided by sex-specific volatile cues that differentially affect microarthropod behavior. These data indicate an existing complex mutualistic relationship and provides new evidence of sexually dimorphic investment by male and female mosses into reproductive success. Further, these data put forth the idea that female mosses challenge an inherent mate limitation by investing into reproductive assurance via maintaining a relationship with microarthropods. Experimental work further confirms a role for invertebrates in moss reproductive success and tests mutualism theory through ongoing experiments. Such experiments include an assessment of moss genetic diversity, paternity, and male fitness traits as it relates to mosses with or without the presence of microarthropods, thereby testing for fitness benefits gained by mosses possibly engaged in a transport mutualism with microarthropods. I further tested mutualism, community ecology and moss sexual reproduction concepts in extreme geothermal moss populations living at the edges of inhabitable Earth, and results show that even geothermal moss canopies are diverse and host differential and abundant life. In a first field test of mutualism I found that although extreme heat stress may constrain sexual reproduction in mosses, a correlation between within-population moss genetic diversity and microarthropod abundances exists. To further examine mosses in extreme environments, and how these environments may constrain sexual reproductive success, I evaluated the effects of simulated warming on Antarctic moss physiology and reproductive biology. Data indicates that simulated warming relieves mosses of physiological stress, and results in a greater investment into primary productivity and sexual reproduction. These data support the hypothesis that with less stress, sexual reproduction is increased. Mosses are an ideal system by which to understand organisms that exist in environments ranging from the mesic to the extreme, in the laboratory and the field and even in the classroom, where the small functioning ecosystem of mosses can be used for discovery-based biology education as described in the Mosscosms curriculum. This work contributes significantly to the field of bryophyte and plant biology by revealing novel insights into the biotic and abiotic drivers of sexual reproduction in mosses.