Decline in Surface Coverage by Mosses on Camels Hump Mountain, Vermont: Possible Relationship to Acidic Deposition

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Abstract
Areas of soil surface covered by mosses in hardwood and northern coniferous forest ecosystems of Camels Hump Mountain, Vermont, decreased between 1965 and 1979. To evaluate the possibility that this decline might be due to a combination of acidic deposition and metal accumulations in the acidic soil solution, one of the dominant moss species, Polytrichum ohioensis Ren. et Card., was grown in vitro at different pH values in the presence of Al, Cu, Pb and Zn ions. Suppression of the growth of gametophyte tissues was a function of metal ion concentration and the pH of the nutrient medium. The simulation experiments indicated that depauperization of mosses in these mountainous ecosystems could be due to metal ions in acidic soil solutions.