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Discovery News - Moss: The breakfast of champions

Published: 24 February 2011

It's not just carbon dioxide that feeds a forest. Trees also depend on nitrogen to grow. And the best buffet of nitrogen comes from moss-loving bacteria.

But to get a really nutritious growth of bacteria going, the moss needs to age. Bacteria, called cyanobacteria, that grow in moss on centuries-old trees, are twice as effective at fixing nitrogen as the same type of bacteria living in moss on the ground, according to research by Zoë Lindo of 91˿Ƶ...

“What we’re doing is putting large old trees into a context where they’re an integral part of what a forest is,” said Lindo in a 91˿Ƶ press release.

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