Natures wonders: desert moss under quartz crystals (Introduction)

by David Turell , Saturday, August 22, 2020, 06:12 (1552 days ago) @ David Turell

Saves some moisture for the plants:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/desert-moss-beats-heat-growing-under-quartz-c...

"To survive in the hot, arid Mojave Desert, the moss Syntrichia caninervis needs to avoid drying out but also needs to catch a few rays to photosynthesize and keep growing. The moss manages to strike this perfect, yoga-like balance by growing beneath translucent quartz blocks.

"The quartz’s cloudy interior filters out much of the sun’s desiccating radiation, which keeps things wetter than the surrounding environment, but just enough light sneaks through to keep the moss’s green engine running, the researchers reported last month in the journal PLOS ONE. The quartz also keeps the moss warmer when the temperature drops in the winter, reports Paul Simons for the Guardian.

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"When the researchers set up a formal study of the phenomenon, they found the moss could be picky about the dimensions and properties of its stone shelter, according to the Guardian. Most of the moss-harboring quartz pieces were roughly an inch thick and were sufficiently clear to allow some 4 percent of sunlight to reach the plant below. Outside these parameters, the quartz would either offer too much or not enough protection from the elements.

"Using sensors wedged under some of these hunks of quartz, the researchers found the stones kept things twice as humid as the surrounding environment and buffered swings in temperature by 7 degrees Fahrenheit in either direction, according to the Times.

"This moss isn’t the only life form known to take advantage of the unique perks found underneath semi-transparent rocks. Hardy cyanobacteria, studied by astrobiologists looking for organisms that might survive elsewhere in the solar system, also live under translucent minerals, per the Guardian. The Syntrichia caninervis moss is the first plant known to adopt the strategy."

Comment: This whole setup looks fortuitous to me. The moss can't move around looking for quartz of the right dimensions and neither can bacteria move around very far in the desert. It seems like a lucky arrangement, nothing more.