Using water chemistry to define ecological preferences within the moss genus Scorpidium

Sorry i just cant get the text to be normal so blog post is short ! 

Just sharing this link to a new paper as its based on data from Wales. 

Link to article click here

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03736687.2019.1603416

Slime, samples and Scorpidium

Myself and Jon Graham have been back out all weekend completing our Scorpidium sampling that we started last year. Our aim is to sample water chemistry from the three Scorpidium species (revolvens, scorpioides and cossonii) to illustrate the variation in chemistry preferred by each species......anyhow more on that later in the year.

• George - we sampled your site at Story Arms - very useful thanks ! 
• Sam -your maps were really helpful thanks again

So below for fun is a picture of the chemical samples, before they get sent of to the BGS labs. All the data will be availble when we are finished (we also have about 25 species specific samples from Jan 2015).

water chemistry samples from Scorpidium before delivery to BGS labs

Slime:

At our last site we saw some really nice spring domes, great for water samples etc. One however had the strangest slime coming from it. It was slightly opaque, and I have taken a sample but have no idea what it is? Anyone seen anything like this before? or know anyone who would want a sample in the post !

nice looking spring mound with Scorpidium revolvens (note slime in the middle)

close up of the slime !

Bryophytes in the snow

I wasn't expecting to see any bryophytes at all when I took the kids up to Storey Arms to play in the snow on Saturday. However, the streams and flushes were free of ice and snow, and a few hastily grabbed tufts of moss provided some nice species I don't see very often (or at all) down my way: Fissidens osmundoides, Campylium stellatum and this rather stunning Scorpidium revolvens, as well as the more familiar Ctenidium molluscum and Philonotis fontanum.

Scorpidium revolvens

These were just above the lay-by on the lower slopes of Fan Fawr (SN976203). Graham - I assume this area has been well covered given its accessibility?

Henrhyd, Mynydd-y-Gwair

The small gulley marks the Glamorgan-Carmarthenshire boundary (see
green line below), with Mynydd-y-Bettws windfarm on the Carms side

This afternoon I spent a good 1½ hours around 320m asl in the little bit of SN61Q that is part of Glamorgan (yellow area above), which proved more fruitful than I was expecting due to a good chunk being base-rich. My highlight was a 60m² patch of Philonotis calcarea (the red patch), the most prominent associates including Palustriella falcata¸ Anagallis tenella and Campylium stellatum. Also there were some lovely wefts of Archidium alternifolium on the adjacent heath growing along with species such as Scorpidium revolvens, Scapania irrigua, Riccardia chamedryfolia, Aneura pinguis and Didymodon fallax.

Philonotis calcarea

Scorpidium revolvens

Archidium alternifolium