Moss helps prevent soil erosion on fire-damaged land, a Portuguese study suggests. The researchers Flávio Castro Silva, Diana Vieira and Jan Jacob Keizer from CESAM analysed water that ran off from post-fire hillsides. They found less sediment and organic matter in run-off from patches of land with high levels of moss than from those with low levels of moss. Moss quickly establishes itself on land after fires, so the study suggests that land managers could take advantage of its restorative effects by deliberately encouraging its growth.
