Rapid Cultivation of “Fire Moss” As a Potential Tool for Burned Area Emergency Response.

Abstract: With high severity wildfires increasing through the Southwestern United States, land managers need new tools to facilitate post wildfire ecosystem stabilization and mitigate soil erosion. One potential tool is using the early successional mosses, Funaria hygrometrica, Bryum argentum, and Ceratodon purpureus. These “fire mosses” complement and augment existing seeding and mulching treatments: They are desiccation tolerant, can be propagated and dispersed vegetatively, can increase infiltration and water holding, and can attain high cover within months of fire. Our first step in exploring fire mosses’ restoration potential is optimizing growth in a greenhouse setting. In the greenhouse, F. hygrometrica, B. argentum and a combination of both, were added to two substrates, commercial “topsoil” and a sand, coconut coir 1:1 mixture. We amended the substrates with ash, charcoal and a combination of the two. We grew mosses on top of burlap and bare soil to explore the tradeoffs between ease of harvesting and propagation potential. We also grew moss on field collected soils as a reference to test our engineered substrates against. We found that F. hygrometrica can achieve 74% cover on topsoil and B. argentum can achieve 71% on topsoil amended with charcoal in nine weeks from an inoculated cover value of 20%. The addition of ash drastically inhibited growth rates and charcoal had mixed effects depending on species. Burlap had an inhibitory effect on growth rates but did not completely impede growth. These results indicate that fire mosses can be grown rapidly in a greenhouse setting using inexpensive organic materials purchased at a local nursery or hardware store. Our next experiments will focus on manipulating microclimate and propagule preparation methods to further improve moss cultivation rates in the greenhouse.