FIELDTRIP #1 – NOTES
STOP
1. Trees, grass, rock wall
NOTES
Substrate diversity
Zonation: vertical and horizontal
Microhabitat: microclimates, consider moister, exposure
(how much light/shade), substrate
2. Plagiomnium insigne,
Brachythecium
General moss structure:
Plagiomnium insigne (badge moss):
- Spirally arranged leaves
- Example of acrocarpous growth form (cushion mosses)
- General leaf structure – unistratose lamina
- Vegetative vs sexual reproductive; how they
accomplished?
- What are the hazards of sex?...for a bryophyte?
- Nutrient and water acquisition (precipitation and
substrate) – where the water flows
- Desiccation tolerance
Brachythecium (growing on rock wall):
- Pleurocarpous growth form (feather mosses)
Habit - what kind of growth form?
Using a hand lens
3. Porella
General liverwort structure:
Thalloid vs leafy
Leaf arrangement: two lateral rows with a row of
underleaves
- making them dorso-ventrally flattened
Leaf shape: lateral leaves shaped like mittens (thumb is
called a lobule)
Moss leaves usually pointed (some have rounded tips)
and unlobed.
Liverwort leaves – lots of variation – can be unlobed,
lobed with one lobule or many.
4. Urban mosses:
Concrete: Grimmia, Tortula
Lawn: Rhytideadelphus
squarrosus
Morphological features (concrete mosses) – adaptions
for living in habitats with which quickly desiccate, hold
onto water as long as possible before physiological
desiccation sets in
- cushion form increases boundary layer (layer of still air
over a surface – reduces evaporation
- hair points/awns (increase boundary layer, collect dew,
reflect light)
- papilla (little bumps)
- thickenings of cell walls (retain water)
- leaf bending
5. Edge of trail: Atrichum
Bryophyte life cycle: alternation of heteromorphic
generations
- gametophyte dominant (tied to aquatic habitat),
sporophyte has adaptations for terrestrial
Most mosses belong to Bryopsida (joint-toothed moss)
- including Dicranum you saw in lab, teeth move at joints
hence called “joint-toothed”
6. Vascular plants (alder)
7. Boulder
8. History of UBC
Atrichum is in another class: Polytrichopsida
- polytrich = many hairs which refers to the hairy calyptra
- Atrichum = no + hairs…so it is a polytrichopsid which
isn’t hairy…..tricky! All other features are consistent
with a moss in this class though…..tune in later.
Life cycle the same
- VPs have dominant sporophyte
Diversity, similar growth form - pleurocarpous
- Glaciated
- After glacier retreated soil had to build up
- Musqueam and other first peoples used Point Grey area
for hunting grounds or so the story goes.
- Europeans arrived
- First logging on south end, selective logging for ship
masts
- we will be spending a little time in the forests and will
be examining species distributions and diversity.
9. Beaver Dam
10. Growth forms
11. Schistostega pennata
12. Rhizomnium glabrescens
- Beavers change the entire ecosystem
- Sphagnum has ways of generating its own ecosystem
too. Tune in later.
- identify potential organisms on a tree
- odd and wonderful moss
- vegetative “shoot” does not look moss-like,
reproductive one has small spirally arranged leaves.
Sporophyte has no teeth even though it is a bryopsid
moss
- discuss specialized habitats
- vegetative looks very different than reproductive (refer
to Schofield, 1992)
- dioicy vs monoicy
- identify antheridial and archegonial plants
Coniferous forest
- look around, contrast with the deciduous forest
- Discuss ecological roles of bryophytes in the woods
(habitat, water, nutrient), include phenology
- Discuss levels and importance of biodiversity
(ecosystem, species, genetic)
- it is difficult to assess genetic diversity with bryophytes
as you can’t really tell where an individual begins and
ends….why?
13. Buckiella undulata
14. Lepidozia reptans
(Mickey Mouse Hands)
- formerly Plagiothecium undulatum
- look at the change in taxonomic endings - endings much
match in gender
- decomposing stump
- decorticated stumps/logs - without bark
- Discuss habitats that change over time vs. stable
environments
Fieldtrip Activity