2023-05-29 17:22:19
Although they cover an area equivalent to China, these very simple organisms that appeared hundreds of millions of years ago remain much less studied than plants.
They grow on the bark of trees, on rock or in the cracks of sidewalks, from tropical forests to Antarctica via the driest deserts. Mosses are everywhere. Nevertheless, ” we still poorly understand how they contribute to soil biogeochemistry, biodiversity and the environment write the authors of an article published this month in the journal Nature Geoscience and presented as ” the most comprehensive field study in the world ” on this subject.
These miniature plants that appeared on Earth hundreds of millions of years ago, and sometimes measuring less than a tenth of a millimetre, belong to the bryophyte family. Mosses grow through photosynthesis but differ from other plants in that they are non-vascular, that is, they lack the typical piping (called xylem and phloem) that brings water and nutrients to plants. That’s why they are very small and must stay close to the ground
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