The role of moss as integrators of soil and stream nutrient status in deserts, Greater Phoenix area, Arizona, 2011 to 2013

In deserts, moss may play an important role connecting soil and stream nutrient cycling, where stream nutrients may be taken up by moss growing at the terrestrial-aquatic interface, which may be windblown into the surrounding soil to become an organic matter source in the soil. Despite its importance, very little is known about moss’s role in biogeochemical cycles and how nutrient pulses (e.g., from N deposition in air pollution) will affect their functional significance as an integrator of nutrient cycling in deserts. To understand their functional significance, we sampled moss and soil to determine (1) the plasticity of moss stoichiometry in relation to the nutrient content of the soil nutrient source; and (2) if moss stoichiometry covaries over natural environmental nutrient gradients (e.g. differing native soil content).