The Dynamic, Microscopic World of Moss
Moss carpets a granite face on Ben Hur Ranch
The Moss Food Web
Moss-dwelling algae and some bacteria as well as mosses themselves capture energy through photosynthesis and make it available in carbon compounds to other functional groups in the community.
A tremendous number of many kinds of invertebrates lives in mosses. The three most abundant aquatic groups are nematodes, tardigrades, and rotifers. All are active in the film of water that covers wet mosses. Mites and springtails are among the best represented air-breathing groups.
A nematode found in a moss sample collected on Ben Hur Ranch
Tardigrade microscope image from Nebraskaland Magazine
Most tardigrades and some nematodes consume mosses and algae: they pierce cells and suck out the contents. Some nematodes as well as the tardigrade genus Milnesium are predators: they eat nematodes, tardigrades, and rotifers. Several kinds of nematodes feed on bacteria, both those that capture energy and those that release energy through decomposition. Other nematodes pierce and suck out the contents of fungal cells. Omnivorous nematodes use several food sources, including moss cells, algae, fungi, and other small invertebrates.
A rotifer found in a moss sample collected on Ben Hur Ranch
Rotifers are filter feeders which ingest a variety of plant and animal prey including algae and detritus. Nutrients released through decomposition of all these organisms by bacteria and fungi are used again by primary producers - mosses, algae, and some bacteria - to capture more energy through photosynthesis.
A complete community of green plants and algae (producers), non-green producers, plant consumers, predators, decomposers, bacteriovores, fungivores, detritovores, and omnivores lives in moss, which is itself part of its community. Nutrients are obtained from the bryophyte substrate (soil or rock) and from windblown/rainwashed particles that lodge in the moss plant. Nutrients are then cycled through the moss community and subsequently released into the surrounding environment through wind or water flow.