Identifying pathways of biological invasion: can commercial moss harbor potential stowaways

Wild-harvested moss, typically a mixture of mosses and liverworts (Peck 2006), is gathered from the forests of the Pacific Northwest and Appalachians and distributed within the continent and to at least 44 international destinations. Previous work examining commercially harvestable PNW moss mats has identied over 200 morphotaxa of associated macroinvertebrates, with any given moss mat bearing a dozen taxa and hundreds of individuals. It is conjectured that some of these taxa become trapped within the plastic retail bag, conned to a closed ecosystem that may have no inputs for weeks to months, until they are released at the nal retail destination.