Phytoremediation, the practice of removing heavy metals from contaminated sites using plants, has emerged as a cost-effective, environmentally friendly green technology to restore damaged ecosystems. Mosses, in particular, demonstrate high phytoremediation potential due to their ability to accumulate heavy metals such as lead, zinc, copper, chromium, cadmium, and iron from contaminated soil and water. This review systematically examines 37 research articles published from 2000 to 2022, focusing on the on the use of mosses for phytoremediation. Moss species, such as Funaria hygrometrica Hedw, Scopelophila cataractae (Mitten) Brotherus, Dicranum scoparium Hedw, Dicranum polysetum Sw. ex anon, Hypnum cupressiforme Hedw, Physcomitrium cyathicarpum Mitt, Barbula constricta Mitt, and Leptodictyum riparium (Hedw.) Warnst. have been identified as ideal candidates for phytoremediation efforts. Specific species of mosses, such as Dicranum species, are noted for their excellent bioaccumulation capabilities of elements like vanadium, manganese, and rubidium, serving as indicators of air pollution. Additionally, Hypnum cupressiforme has proven to be a reliable indicator of sulfur dioxide in natural and anthropogenic sources. This comprehensive review highlights the significant phytoremediation potential of mosses, emphasizing their role as valuable bioaccumulators and indicators of heavy metals and pollutants. The findings highlight the necessity of further research to enhance the application of mosses in environmental management and remediation strategies, ultimately contributing to the development of sustainable and effective solutions for pollution control.

Extreme droughts are globally increasing in frequency and severity. Most research on drought in forests focuses on the response of trees, while less is known about the impacts of drought on forest understory species and how these effects are moderated by the local environment. We assessed the impacts of a 45-day experimental summer drought on the performance of six boreal forest understory plants, using a transplant experiment with rainout shelters replicated across 25 sites. We recorded growth, vitality and reproduction immediately, 2 months, and 1 year after the simulated drought, and examined how differences in ambient soil moisture and canopy cover among sites influenced the effects of drought on the performance of each species. Drought negatively affected the growth and/or vitality of all species, but the effects were stronger and more persistent in the bryophytes than in the vascular plants. The two species associated with older forests, the moss Hylocomiastrum umbratum and the orchid Goodyera repens, suffered larger effects than the more generalist species included in the experiment. The drought reduced reproductive output in the moss Hylocomium splendens in the next growing season, but increased reproduction in the graminoid Luzula pilosa. Higher ambient soil moisture reduced some negative effects of drought on vascular plants. Both denser canopy cover and higher soil moisture alleviated drought effects on bryophytes, likely through alleviating cellular damage. Our experiment shows that boreal understory species can be adversely affected by drought and that effects might be stronger for bryophytes and species associated with older forests. Our results indicate that the effects of drought can vary over small spatial scales and that forest landscapes can be actively managed to alleviate drought effects on boreal forest biodiversity. For example, by managing the tree canopy and protecting hydrological networks.

Bryophytes play important roles in high altitude-latitude ecosystem owing to their extensive geographical coverage. Particularly, the insulating effect prevent permafrost degradation with the rapidly climate warming on the QTP. However, few studies investigated how Bryophytes will react to environmental change at the global scale. In this study, a maximum entropy (Maxent) model was utilized to predict the potential impact of climate change on the distribution of Bryophytes on the QTP. Predictions were based on the under historical (years of 1970-2000) and future climate scenarios (years of 2041-2060 and 2081-2100) using the average climate data of nine global climate models (GCMs) for shared socio-economic pathways (SSP2-4.5) of CMIP6 and other environmental variables. In addition, the key environmental factors affecting the habitat distribution and range shifts of Bryophytes were examined. The results revealed that Bryophytes occupied an area of approximately 179.97 (+/- 0.87) x 10(4 )km(2), 77 (+/- 0.44)% of the total areal extent of QTP in the past. Niche suitability of the Bryophytes was dominated by soil moisture, ultraviolet-B radiation seasonality, temperature seasonality and precipitation of the coldest quarter. Under future climate scenarios, the occupied area increased continuously towards the relatively higher elevation regions. Moreover, permafrost regions would become the buffer zone for the range shifts of niches and covers of Bryophytes on the QTP. This paper will improve our understanding of vegetable potential impact on the permafrost climate feedback.

Previous studies in tundra ecology provide evidence for sensitivity of the vegetation-soil complex to climate. Short-term experiments (less than or equal to10 yr) suggest that climate change may have a decade-scale effect on soil moisture, decomposition and nutrient availability, plant phenology, and plant growth. In contrast, there exists little evidence to confirm or refute the role of climate in structuring tundra vegetation over longer time scales (10 to 1000 yr). This study accordingly examines similar to1500 yr in the stratigraphy of two permafrost sediment cores from a High Arctic, polygon-patterned, graminoid-moss tundra. Present-day bryophyte-environment relationships are quantified, and the radiocarbon-dated macrofossil record of bryophytes is used to reconstruct past changes in soil moisture. The paleoecological record is characterized by pronounced variability during polygon development. As the hydrology of tundra polygons is controlled by known climatic and geomorphologic mechanisms, the recurrent development of polygon vegetation (cf. hydrologic change) is compared to an independent paleoclimatic proxy for net radiation (R-n). Based on this comparison, the vegetation provides support for a pronounced shift to colder and wetter conditions during the Little Ice Age (similar to300-465 yr BP), though the long-term response to past climate change is otherwise equivocal. We suggest accordingly that autogenic geomorphologic-vegetation processes may have been generally more important than climate in the long-term development of the polygon-patterned wetland examined. A framework for such processes is presented. We caution that previous research to simulate and describe the effects of climate warming might not have properly accounted for the dynamic role of geomorphology in regulating tundra microclimate.