BIOL 2903 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Bistort, Pinguicula, Lesser Yellowlegs
5 Mar 2018
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Sphagnum modifies the environment: makes it acidic, nutrient poor, oxygen deprived: sphagnum provides its own water because it is built like a sponge, created peatlands. The lower portion of the moss mat dies and more sphagnum grows on top of it (more growth than decomposition), this is a muskeg (>45cm of peat) Lichens (reindeer lichens) dominate too, especially parts of the older mats. Heath plants are a dominant group (ex: bog laurel, cranberries, bog rosemary, In return the fungus gets sugars (symbiotic: underside of leaves have hairs to prevent desiccation in winter so they don"t have to drop all of their leaves in the winter which takes up a lot of energy. As the mat gets thicker, shrubs grow on it (ex: alders (have help in getting nitrogen from bacteria from root nodules) Black spruce grow on older mounds and hummocks (mounds of vegetation growing up which is drier).
