Can biocrust moss hide from climate change? Fine-scale habitat sheltering improves summer stress resistance in Syntrichia caninervis.

ABSTRACT:

Premise

Mosses provide many ecosystem functions and are the most vulnerable of biocrust organisms to climate change due to their sensitive water relations stressed by summer aridity. Given their small size, moss stress resistance may be more dependent on fine-scale habitat than macroclimate, but the sheltering role of habitat (i.e., habitat buffering) has never been compared to macroclimate and may have important implications for predicting critical biocrust moss refugia in changing climates.

Methods

We located three populations of a keystone biocrust moss, Syntrichia caninervis, spanning 1200 m of altitude, which comprised three macroclimate (elevation) zones of characterized plant communities in the Mojave Desert. We stratified 92 microsites along three aridity gradients:

SUBMITTER: Clark TA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11848024 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature