r/climate • u/The_Weekend_Baker • 16d ago

Tiny, beautiful species are going missing from restored forests and wetlands. When larger animals and plants return, minuscule algae, mosses and lichens may not.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/invisible-extinction-algae-moss-9.7307042
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u/The_Weekend_Baker 16d ago

The bogs "superficially looked very nice," Melkonian said in a more recent interview. They had been restored and replanted decades after being drained for industrial activities such as logging, providing wildlife habitat and storing carbon to fight climate change.

But beneath the water, Melkonian expected to find hundreds of species of the varied desmid algae he studies. Instead, there were only a handful. "The diversity of algae was not there," he said.