Art, Design, and Biology

Why do mosses matter?

Figure 2, Moss in the Fall in Connecticut, Kasalina Maliamu Nabakooza, 2024

“In the end, scientific research is about building models.”⁸

Why do mosses matter to humans? Mosses consisting of about 10,000 known species belong to the biggest group of plants named Bryophytes (Bryophytes also include liverworts and hornworts that differ from moss) and live on all continents.⁹ Moss grows in clumps consisting of leaves and stems without a root system like trees do.¹⁰ The structure of moss is as follows: it has rhizoids that give it stability but unlike roots do not absorb water, a stem, and leaves.¹¹ When reproducing moss may generate spores from seta that emerge.¹² The word ‘terra,’ is Latin for ‘earth.’¹³ (Newell, 13) A terrarium in the classroom is a microcosm that the students can learn about ecology and biology from observing. Microorganisms live on moss that improve soil and release nutrients.¹⁴ This year on monthly hikes in Connecticut with Everyone Outside, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization I noticed that moss is likely to be found in shaded areas near fresh water. Moss can grow on trees, rocks and other surfaces such as sidewalk cracks in all seasons if left undisturbed. The impact of climate change on moss can be seen in indoor terrariums if the right conditions of nutrients, light, oxygen and water that support it are not in balance.¹⁵ I observed moss in a terrarium I made this year turn partially brown after a heat wave and then revive with added moisture and an airconditioned environment. Microclimates near the surface of the earth help moss stay alive even in harsh conditions and on the sides of cliffs like in East Rock, New Haven, Connecticut.¹⁶ Mosses are resilient but they are also sensitive. Their biology makes them sensitive to pollution and they can alert humans to changes in the quality of air.¹⁷ Only one cell shields moss from their environment.¹⁸ Since the Industrial Revolution cities like New Haven which was a railroad and manufacturing hub has had fewer mosses.¹⁹ Especially because mosses grow slowly it may be that most people did not notice their gradual decline amid industrialization and climate change in the past century. Prior to industrialization farming practices also contributed to degradation of moss species because of habitat loss.²⁰ In the lifetimes of students who may be seeing moss in this lesson for the first time they may observe other changes which people do not notice resulting from our changing environment in the next decade as they progress in their studies.

In the book, Gathering Moss, the author Robin Wall Kimmerer, Distinguished Teaching Professor at the SUNY College of Environmental and Forest Biology and Director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment writes “When we gather and dance in the elder’s footsteps, we honour that link. When we steward the earth for our children, we are living like Sphagnum.”²¹ Sphagnum is a particularly resilient type of moss that “can absorb more than twenty times its weight in water,” and was crucial for wound care during World War I for that reason.²² Curiously bodies have been preserved in bog burials in places in the Northern Hemisphere because Shagnum absorbs so much water that keeps other organisms from growing and decaying them.²³ In the preservation process it is as if life has instead of decaying been frozen in time for future generations to apprehend our ancestors who were more closely connected to their environment in daily life for ceremonial and practice purposes such as in a bag lined with moss from Greenland located now in Yale University’s Peabody Museum.²⁴

Naming is important in identifying which plants can be food, medicine or poison or in the naming of an heir is very important to human relationships and their world.²⁵ This demonstrates that globally our relationship to our environment and plant biology has a special significance to humans culturally that is connected to our wellbeing physically. Mushrooms and moss become momento mori that confront us with the cycles of life. In the book, A Wilder Way, a gardener named Poppy Okotcha who draws cultural links to her process gardening between her British and Nigerian heritage writes, “Today the autumn garden forces me to stare death in the face.”²⁶ We take for granted the cycles of the seasons and watching the leaves change color and fall in autumn. With climate change the rhythms may be out of sync and students may be more aware of disturbances in the natural environment.

This visual arts lesson gives students an opportunity to take note of the world they live in and respond to it with art and understanding through science. Moss and mushrooms are similar because they can break down materials to create nutrients for other organisms. Compost in terrariums help create a cycle of carbon that enables moss and perhaps even mushrooms to grow parallels the way our larger world environment operates. ²⁷ Water is also essential to the survival of moss in a terrarium. As Okotcha writes, “Water and soil. The two original sustainers. A garden cannot be grown without these precious resources.”²⁸ This parallels what Okotcha writes about her observations of the importance decomposition in her garden, “Essentially, composting – or decomposition – supports life.”²⁹ Compost and moss that grows on it can also contain life, microscopic organisms and insects can be sustained in a terrarium in the classroom that assist in the ecosystem.³⁰ Insects such as springtails can be added to terrariums to help maintain the balance within it by eating decaying material. It is important not to use preserved moss in terrariums because it rots and contains chemicals and is not likely to be alive with any other organisms. ³¹

Students have had previous experiences composting this past year in school during lunch periods. Students demonstrated their understanding of process of decomposition with drawings that were displayed and also managing the separation of materials in the cafeteria. This unit can build on their knowledge of recycling sustainability to think about how decomposition can be fertile ground for regeneration.