VALUE AND USE
SPECIES: Pleurozium schreberi | Schreber's Moss 



WOOD PRODUCTS VALUE : 
NO-ENTRY


IMPORTANCE TO LIVESTOCK AND WILDLIFE : 
NO-ENTRY


PALATABILITY : 
NO-ENTRY


NUTRITIONAL VALUE : 
NO-ENTRY


COVER VALUE : 
NO-ENTRY


VALUE FOR REHABILITATION OF DISTURBED SITES : 



OTHER USES AND VALUES : 
In the past, Schreber's moss was collected and used to block chinks in
the walls of homes in Scandinavia.  It is still used for chinking log
homes in Russia.  It was also used for lining fruit and vegetable
storage boxes [29].

Schreber's moss is used as an indicator of heavy metal deposition
[11,29].  It is often used in locating pollution sources and determining
levels of pollution of heavy metals in the environment.  It absorbs
metals over its entire surface and is little influenced by variations in
substrate mineralization.  Close to the source, this moss accumulates
high levels of metals [29].


MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS : 
Schreber's moss is known to efficiently intercept nutrients contained in
precipitation and throughfall.  It therefore can prevent rapid leaching
of nutrients to lower horizons of the soil.  In view of its storage
capacity, the moss carpet can act as a reservoir in which a large
proportion of the potentially available nutrients found in the ecosytem
is sequestered.  However, it has also been recognized that mechanisms
may exist for the transfer of nutrients from the moss carpet to the
trees.  Mycorrhizal roots of some trees grow in close association with
mosses such as Schreber's moss.  Phosphate (32P) and carbon (14C)
applied to Schreber's moss shoots were absorbed by mycorrhizal mycelia
and transferred to infected lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) roots and
then to their shoots [4].

In 100-year-old stands of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris), artifical acid
rain with a pH of 2.5 to 3.0 caused severe damage to Schreber's moss
[27].

Related categories for Species: Pleurozium schreberi | Schreber's Moss