Deals with the various life forms and general ecology of bryophytes

1. TOPIC: ECOLOGY OF BRYOPHYTES
UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF-
Dr. NIMISHA AMIST
SUBMITTED BY-
SWAPNIL ANAND
UNIVERSITY OF ALLAHABAD

2. ECOLOGY
Ecology is the scientific study of interactions among
organisms and their environment, such as the
interactions organisms have with each other and with
their abiotic environment. Topics of interest to
ecologists include the diversity, distribution, amount
(biomass), number (population) of organisms, as well
as competition between them within and among
ecosystems.

3. BRYOPHYTES & ITS ECOLOGY
The bryophytes are a small group of most primitive land
dwellers, included about 24,000 species and 960 genera.
The bryophytes are worldwide in distribution and are to
be found in practically all places in which plants can live,
except in the sea.
Bryophytes regarded as terrestrial plants, occur in diverse
habitats like the soil, barks of trees, leaves, dead logs, rocks
and stones etc.
Bryophytes are not parasitic plants.

4. A few bryophytes are true aquatic plants e.g.,
Riccia fluitans ,
Ricciocarpos notans,
Fontinalis antipyretica, and
Riella sp.
Riella is the only bryophyte successfully adapted to
complete its life cycle under water.
A few species of bryophytes grow in bogs such as
Sphagnum sp.,
Leucobryum glaucum,
Drepanocladus fluitans ,
Cephalozia bicuspidata, and
Calypogeia fissa
Leucobryum glaucum
cushions

5. DESERT BRYOPHYTES
In hot, dry areas water is typically scarce, with rainfall
unpredictable, and the bryophytes living there adopt various
survival strategies. One is to grow in the more protected
MICRO-HABITATS – such as at the bases of grass tussocks, on
tree trunks, under boulder overhangs and in rock crevices
Arid area bryophytes open up and actively photosynthesize
when there is moisture available, but close up and become
dormant when conditions become too hot and dry.
Bryophytes are much more resistant to heat when dry than
they are when moist. Experiments have shown that species
which can tolerate temperatures of 80-100°C (or even more)
when dry, die at temperatures of 40-50°C if they are kept
moist.

6. Asterella drummondii - wet Asterella drummondii - dry

7. EPILITHS
• Life forms on basic rocks in nine communities in
southern Germany. The communities subject to high light
and temperature (photophytic and thermophytic) were
dominated by cushions, short turfs, and perennial and
short-lived colonists.
• Epilithic or saxicolous bryophytes may be defined
as those growing directly on the surface of rock.

8. EPIPHYTES BRYOPHYTES
Epiphytes occur most abundantly in moist tropical forests, but
mosses occur as epiphytes in almost all biomes. In Europe there
are no dedicated epiphytic plants using roots, but rich
assemblages of mosses and lichens grow on trees in damp areas
(mainly the western coastal fringe), and the common polypody
fern grows epiphytically along branches. Rarely, grass, small
bushes or small trees may grow in suspended soils up trees
(typically in a rot-hole).
Epiphytic plants attached to their hosts high in the canopy have an
advantage over herbs restricted to the ground where there is less
light and herbivores may be more active. Epiphytic plants are also
important to certain animals that may live in their water reservoirs,
such as some types of frogs and arthropods.

9. Epiphytes can have a significant effect on the
microenvironment of their host, and of ecosystems where
they are abundant, as they hold water in the canopy and
decrease water input to the soil. The epiphytes create a
significantly cooler and moister environment in the host plant
canopy, potentially greatly reducing water loss by the host
through transpiration.
Climacium dendroides, showing dendroid

10. AQUATIC BRYOPHYTES
Taxithelium merrillii on
mangrove mud
Places such as streams, lakes and bogs are home to many species of
bryophytes. The most significant of the bog bryophytes are the mosses
in the genus Sphagnum. Sphagnum bogs are estimated to cover
between 1% and 2% of the world's land surface (more than the area
covered by any other single plant genus) and have significant
ecological roles. Some of the bryophyte species found near water can
also tolerate drier areas while others cannot survive away from a moist
environment. Many bryophytes are found in association with
freshwater but there are no marine bryophytes.

11. EPIPHYLLOUS BRYOPHYTES
Radula compacta on
Blechnum frond
Epiphyllous or follicolous bryophytes are those that grow on the leaves
of vascular plants. Such epiphylls are widespread, and often quite
common, in the tropical areas where there are long periods of high
humidity. Two examples are the leafy liverworts Lopholejeunea
muelleriana var. australis and Cololejeunea lanciloba, both pictured
growing on the leaves of vascular rainforest plants on Christmas Island
in the Indian Ocean. Pellia epiphylla (thallus liverworts) found on moist
shady forest floor which is epiphyllus fern. Many epiphyllous species are
strictly epiphyllous but some may also be found on other plant parts
(twigs, branches, trunks) or even non-plant substrates such as rocks.
Pellia epiphylla

12. LIFE FORMS OF BRYOPHYTES
• Annuals – pioneers; no vegetative shoots remain to carry on a
second year; e.g. Buxbaumia, Diphyscium, Ephemerum,
Phascum, Riccia
• Short turfs – open mineral soils and rocks; regenerative shoots;
form spreading turfs for only a few years; e.g. Ceratodon,
Didymodon, Marsupella
• Tall Turfs – forest floors in temperate zones; can conduct water
internally; very tall; persist by regenerative shoots;
Bartramiaceae, Dicranaceae, Polytrichaceae, Drepanocladus,
Herbertus, Sphagnum, Tomenthypnum
• Cushions – rocks, bark, Arctic, Antarctic, alpine; usually high
light; grow upward and sideways; hemispherical; persistent for
many years; Andreaea, Grimmia, Leucobryum Orthotrichum,
Plagiopus, no liverworts

13. • Mats – rocks, bark, [on leaves (epiphyllous) in tropics]; plagiotropic and
persistent for a number of years; Lejeuneaceae, most Marchantiaceae,
Homalothecium, Lophocolea, Plagiothecium, Radula
• Wefts – forest floor of temperate zone; hold considerable capillary water; grow
loosely and easy to remove from substrate; new layer grows each year;
Brachytheciaceae, Hylocomiaceae, Bazzania, Ptilidium, Thuidium,
Trichocolea
• Pendants – epiphytes, especially in tropical cloud forests; long main stem with
short side branches; Meteoriaceae, Phyllogoniaceae, some tropical Frullania
• Tails – on trees and rocks, shade-loving; radially leafed, creeping, shoots stand
away from substrate; Cyathophorum, Leucodon , Spiridens, some tropical
Plagiochila
• Fans – on vertical substrate, usually where there is lots of rain; creeping, with
branches in one plane and leaves usually flat; Neckeraceae , Pterobryaceae,
Thamnobryum, some Plagiochila .
• Dendroids – on ground, usually moist; main stem with tuft of branches at top;
Climacium, Hypnodendron, Hypopterygium, Leucolepis, Pleuroziopsis,
Symphogyna hymenophyllum
• Streamer – long, floating stems in streams and lakes; Fontinalis

14. • FAN
• SHORT TURF

15. PENDANT FORM
• DENDROID FORM
WEFT FORM
CUSHION FORM

16. Bryophytes in tropical rain forest
The tropical rain forest is well known for supporting a great diversity of flora
and fauna. Because of the complexity of structure and variety of
microhabitats, lowland and montane tropical rain forest are the habitat of
many bryophytes holding 25-30% of the world’s bryophytes (Gradstein &
Pócs, 1989). In fact, Gradstein and Pócs (1989) have stated that the tropical
rain forests, including the tropical montane forest, possibly hold more
bryophyte species than any other major ecosystems of the world.
About 90% of the bryophytes of a tropical rain forest belong to only 15
families: Calymperaceae, Dicranaceae, Fissidentaceae, Hookeriaceae,
Hypnaceae, Meteoriaceae, Neckeriaceae, Orthotrichaceae, Pterobryaceae
and Sematophyllaceae (mosses); and Frullaniaceae, Lejeuneaceae,
Lepidoziaceae, Plagiochilaceae and Radulaceae (liverworts).

17. ARCTIC REGION
Bryophytes and water level are intimately related in the Arctic
Where the water table is maintained above the bryophyte
surface, marshes develop. Where the water table
is high above the permafrost, but remains below the bryophyte
surface, fens develop. These moss tundras normally have no
standing water and water courses are able to move through
them from below the surface, maintaining the fen status. The
standing water level is thus the primary factor determining the
species alliances in that area. Some species complexes, such as
that of the Catoscopium nigritum community require a
temporary period of desiccation to subsist.

18. ANTARCTICA
Warnstorfia sarmentosa
In the Antarctic, stones and gravel of
nearly level ground support short turfs
and cushions (Longton 1979b). In addition
to these, calcareous substrata may have
mats. Rock crevices have short turfs, small
cushions, and mats.
In the Antarctic, aquatic mosses showed
the greatest plasticity when submerged
compared to being grown in the air
(Priddle 1979). Warnstorfia sarmentosa
grew longer stems (longer internodes)
and larger leaves in the water, whereas
Sanionia uncinata varied little from its
terrestrial form.

19. POLAR REGION
The dry polar desert fellfields have cushions of both mosses
and flowering plants, but other open areas have compact
forms such as mats, carpets, and short turfs.
Wetlands to be dominated by the tall turf life form, with
lesser representation of short turfs such as Seligeria polaris.
Mesic communities had a wider range of life forms than the
wetlands, but the tall turf was still a dominant, with short
turfs and mat-forming species also among the dominants.

20. ALPINE
In Alpine
Cushions are common,
but also carpets cover
the dirt and provide
protection from
erosion.
eg:- Takakia lepidozioides

21. Environmental pollution is increasing day by day, posing a
very serious problem for the flora and fauna. A large
number of pollutants including heavy metals are adversely
affecting our environment.
Bryophytes are widely used as bio-indicators for their unique and
very specific responses. Some bryophyte species are extremely
sensitive to pollutants and exhibit visible injury symptoms even in
the presence of very minute quantities of pollutants. Such species
serve as good bio-indicators and act as a "warning giver"
regarding the effect on the environment. Some other species of
bryophytes possess the capacity to absorb and retain pollutants in
concentrations much higher than those absorbed and retained by
the higher plants growing in the same habitat.
BRYOPHYTES- ENVIRONMENT INDICATOR

22. Goodman and Roberts reported that Hypnum cupressiforme
transplanted in industrial area in Wales died after sometime, but
it continued to accumulate heavy metals after death. In India,
studies on heavy metal monitoring, has also been carried out by
transplanting Marchantia polymorpha and Brachythecium
populeum at vehicular polluted sites in Mussoorie.
A study on bio-monitoring of heavy metals due to
vehicular pollution with the help of Sphagnum has also
been done by Saxena (2001). The high accumulation
capacity of bryophytes for pollutants has led to their use
for heavy metal monitoring.
Bryophytes: A Useful Tool in Heavy
Metal Monitoring
Heavy metals which are accumulated in
bryophytes are Pb, Cu, Zn, Ni, Cr and Cd

23. Bryophytes are known as efficient accumulator of heavy metals
because of their following properties:-
• They lack true root system and depend largely on atmospheric
deposition for their requirements of mineral elements.
• They usually lack continuous cuticle layer and thus their tissues are
easily permeable to water and minerals, including the gaseous
pollutants in the atmosphere and the metal ions.
• Their tissues have numerous negatively charged groups and act as
an efficient cation exchangers. Their cell walls possess high exchange
capacity and even their dead tissues have capacity to bind ions.
• They generally obtain mineral nutrition from wet and dry
deposition of particles and soluble salts. However, in certain
bryophytes, uptake of metals from substrate occurs, mainly with
rising capillary water. Such bryophyte species are less suitable for the
monitoring of heavy metals.

24. ECOLOGICAL ROLE
• In wetlands such as boglands and swamps,
bryophytes absorb great quantities of water and
release organic acids which decrease decomposition
rates. This accumulation of biomass over thousands
of years forms ecosystems such as the Okeefenokee
Swamp, the bogs we find thoughout Canada,
Northern US and across the oceans.

25. • In the tropical rainforest, 'moss balls' form in the
higher elevations. Here they can absorb great
quantities of rain and release water slowly into the
atmosphere or ground. They also, along with the
moisture, release quantities of ions i.e. Ca+. These
balls support numbers of invertebrates and smaller
organisms. Basically these layers have created a
second 'ground' or terra high in the tropical canopy, a
world recently discovered with walkways and ladders
that span the canopy.

26. REFERENCE
• ECOLOGY OF BRYOPHYTES - A.J.E SMITH
• Glime, J. M. Bryophyte Ecology. Volume 1.

27. THANK YOU