TERRA FIRMA
Terra Firma takes us into what lies beneath - a land of luscious biodiversity. Soils, root systems, mosses, lichens and ferns that live on these micro ecosystems.
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Mosses and their cousin liverworts (essentially leafy mosses) are plants with tiny leaves that grow in tufts or cushions, mostly in damp areas. Mosses are gardeners’ friends, retaining water around pots and plants. They do the same for nature, holding soils together and keeping in moisture.
Mosses sequester large amounts of carbon and also increase humification of the soil. The micro ecosystems around mosses and ferns and the understory of the forest provide important ecosystems for all kinds of micro insects, fungi and more. They are constantly creating soil by recycling nutrients.
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Lichens also play a crucial role in ecosystems, just as much as mosses do. The termites of the plant world, lichens extract and recycle nutrients, crumbling rocks to create the soil other plants need to survive.
