So these "old timer" bryophytes frequently get buried by glaciers during ice ages. And they can sit patiently under the ice for a really long time....
A number of unfortunate bryophytes have been stuck under the ice for half a millennium, since the Little Ice Age! But as glaciers everywhere retreat with global warming, these plants are actually reviving. Here's the link:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/05/130528202549.htm?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fearth_climate+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Earth+%26+Climate+News%29
Dr. La Farge is the curator of the very cool-sounding Cryptogamic Herbarium; do you think she imagined her career when she was just a kid? I doubt it. But she and her team of scientists are growing these long-dormant plants, and glaciers are looking more like long-term depositories of many plant species; Mother Nature turns out to be an efficient archivist!
 |
| A random bryophyte. |
That is so cool (no pun intended)! Who knows what's buried under glaciers?
ReplyDeleteI know, makes me a little nervous, actually!
ReplyDeleteHi Marla,
ReplyDeleteThis IS very cool but it also gives me the creeps! Do you remember the movie "Smilla's Sense of Snow" with Julia Ormand? Who knows what might be lurking under the ice or swimming in the snowmelt.
Beautiful photo!
Gail
Uh, oh! I'm not sure I want to know what's lurking under the ice either! Poor Otzi the Iceman did not revive, though, when his glacier melted in the Alps....
ReplyDeleteVery clever & cute natural bonsai plants. :)
ReplyDeleteThey are adorable little plants, aren't they? Tough, too!
ReplyDelete