Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- 1 Morphology and classification of the Marchantiophyta
- 2 Morphology, anatomy, and classification of the Bryophyta
- 3 New insights into morphology, anatomy, and systematics of hornworts
- 4 Phylogenomics and early land plant evolution
- 5 Mosses as model organisms for developmental, cellular, and molecular biology
- 6 Physiological ecology
- 7 Biochemical and molecular mechanisms of desiccation tolerance in bryophytes
- 8 Mineral nutrition and substratum ecology
- 9 The structure and function of bryophyte-dominated peatlands
- 10 Population and community ecology of bryophytes
- 11 Bryophyte species and speciation
- 12 Conservation biology of bryophytes
- Index
- References
8 - Mineral nutrition and substratum ecology
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 July 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- 1 Morphology and classification of the Marchantiophyta
- 2 Morphology, anatomy, and classification of the Bryophyta
- 3 New insights into morphology, anatomy, and systematics of hornworts
- 4 Phylogenomics and early land plant evolution
- 5 Mosses as model organisms for developmental, cellular, and molecular biology
- 6 Physiological ecology
- 7 Biochemical and molecular mechanisms of desiccation tolerance in bryophytes
- 8 Mineral nutrition and substratum ecology
- 9 The structure and function of bryophyte-dominated peatlands
- 10 Population and community ecology of bryophytes
- 11 Bryophyte species and speciation
- 12 Conservation biology of bryophytes
- Index
- References
Summary
Introduction
Bryophytes do not appear to differ fundamentally from higher plants and green algae in their basic requirements for mineral macronutrients and trace elements. However, bryophytes differ significantly from vascular plants in pathways for nutrient acquisition and these may sometimes have far-reaching consequences for the ecosystems in which they grow. Owing to their specific modes of nutrient capture, bryophytes frequently accumulate chemicals to concentrations far exceeding those in the ambient environment. This property has led to the development of moss biomonitoring methods, which have taken hold firmly in the wider scientific community since the first edition of this book appeared.
As in the earlier edition, this chapter describes the special problems that bryophytes encounter in obtaining essential mineral nutrients, and in dealing with non-essential elements and compounds. Far more is known now than in the earlier edition about nitrogen deposition and utilization by bryophytes, and hence the chapter will focus on these aspects of mineral nutrition and substrate ecology.
The substratum on which a bryophyte grows can be a source of nutrients and other chemicals that may cause stresses. I have retained the useful distinction between “substrate”, used for the substance on which an enzyme or biochemical process works (as in Section 8.3.1), and “substratum”, used for the surface supporting a plant or lichen, although the etymological grounds for this are slight. Substratum specificity and chemical specialisms are considered in some detail but aspects involving competition and population dynamics are now largely covered in Chapter 10 by Rydin.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Bryophyte Biology , pp. 299 - 356Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008
References
- 9
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