hello guys.... Economic importance of mosses. Tell me fast plzzzz.
Answers
Mosses are often used to condition the soil. Coarse-textured mosses increase water storage whereas fine-textured mosses provide air spaces. Peat mosses are the most important economically as they were, and still are, an important source of fuel in some countries. Peat is derived largely from Sphagnum moss.
Mosses may be small and inconspicuous and their economic uses not immediately obvious but there are some surprising ways in which moss is and has been used.
In construction, mosses can provide chinking and even building material. As mosses are among the first colonizers of disturbed sites they are used in so-called “green roof technology" to vegetate roofs. They have also been used in boat construction. In the Scottish Highlands mosses were prepared by steeping in tar and then used for caulk (to make vessels watertight).
In Japan mosses are often used on walls, embankments and roofs for both aesthetic purposes and practical ones; however, more often than not people try to get rid of moss as its moisture and organic acids contribute to the degradation of stonework.
Mosses are often used to condition the soil. Coarse-textured mosses increase water storage whereas fine-textured mosses provide air spaces.
Peat mosses are the most important economically as they were, and still are, an important source of fuel in some countries. Peat is derived largely from Sphagnum moss. The great advantage of peat as a fuel is that it is clean burning.
As Peat mosses readily absorb large amounts of water they are often used in the horticultural industry to improve the water-holding capacity of soil since they are typically acidic (which prevents the growth of most bacteria) and they have been used as an antiseptic dressing for wounds.
In Scotland Sphagnum moss is even used in the making of whisky!