Desiccation Stress and the Effect of Humidity in Mosses

Abstract

Mosses show fair degree of structural adaptations to different environmental conditions. The effects caused by desiccation were determined in the shoots of six moss species, collected from various locations of the Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife campus, Osun State, Nigeria. Using 0.1 g of fresh weights, desiccation of moss species over time at 0%, 52%, and 100% relative humidity, were determined by putting the shoots into desiccators and reweighing at intervals of 15 min, 30 min, 1 hr and on the 8th day. It was concluded that the locations of the moss species, and the fact that the cell walls of all the mosses were thick, were regarded as the adaptations which helped these mosses survived desiccation stress.