Mosses under snow

High-elevation mosses experience intense summer drying, high solar radiation, freezing temperatures, and long periods beneath winter snow. This project focuses on alpine and subalpine mosses that persist across these seasonal extremes. We are interested in whether mosses beneath winter snow remain physiologically active during parts of the cold season or instead enter a mostly dormant state until conditions become more favorable. To explore this question, we combine field monitoring of winter microclimates with laboratory assays of photosynthetic performance, cold tolerance, and stress recovery. We are also investigating molecular and genomic features that may contribute to cold-stress responses in alpine mosses. By linking field conditions with physiological and molecular responses, this work asks how changing snowpack, winter temperature, and seasonal water availability may affect moss survival in high-elevation habitats.