The MossCam Project The Star Moss, Tortula princeps, a desiccation-tolerant plant
James San Jacinto Mountains Reserve University of California Natural Reserve System	Project Leaders: Brent D. Mishler, Director bmishler@socrates.berkeley.edu Michael P. Hamilton, Director director@jamesreserve.edu Current Conditions date time temp ° F humidity %Rh wind speed mph wind direction rainfall In	University and Jepson Herbaria University of California Berkeley

current view via moss cams
Color Image Moss Cam #1		Infra Red Image Moss Cam #2
click thumbnail for full-size images
click here to view quicktime movie of moss
click here to see noon image archive of moss
click here to view Mosscam Weather Station Data

Project Description

• Mosses are among the most desiccation-tolerant of all plants. They can be completely dried at the cellular level and recover completely. When re-wet after months or years of being dry, they begin photosynthesis within 5 minutes! For more information about desiccation-tolerance, see the "Plants Without Water" website: http://ucjeps.herb.berkeley.edu/bryolab/pww/

• The mosses are also interesting phylogenetically. Mosses are a single, diverse lineage of some 15,000 species; the moss lineage as a whole is the closest living relative of the "vascular plants" (i.e., the diverse lineage containing ferns, horsetails, pines, flowering plants, etc.). These two big lineages of land plants, that last shared a common ancestor some 500 million years ago, have adopted two contrasting life styles. The leafy green part of the moss plant is the haploid generation (i.e., with each cell containing one set of chromosomes, as human sex cells do). By contrast, the green leafy plant of all vascular plants is the diploid generation (i.e., with each cell containing two sets of chromosomes, as in all cells of the human body). The mosses remained small in stature, occupied microhabitats and retained their desiccation-tolerant water relationships, while the vascular plants became large, structurally complex, and ecologically dominant ... two different strategies for being a land plant. For more information about green plant evolution, see the "Deep Green" website: http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/bryolab/greenplantpage.html

• The leaves of Tortula princeps are only one cell thick, and each one has a long, clear hairpoint, and two kinds of leaf cells: large, clear, window-like ones below, and small, green, bumpy ones above. There is a tremendous difference in the wet and dry appearance of this moss; when wet it is green, with each leaf recurved giving the plant an appearance of a "star" when viewed from above; when dry it is red-brown and the leaves are folded and twisted together around the stem.

• This web monitoring project takes advantage of this morphological shift -- our goal is to determine the actual water budget of this plant in real time. No one knows how many hours during a year (or with what periodicity) a desiccation-tolerant moss is wet (and thus active). Thus in addition to providing an exciting and entertaining website where you can watch moss photosynthesize and grow in real time (!), this project has a serious scientific side: we are automatically recording data about changes in the water and light status of this clump over several years.

• The long cylinders on stalks are the capsules; the diploid part of the life cycle where spores are produced. Look for the peristome, which is the long twisted set of teeth at the end of the capsule (see how the free, twisted ends of the teeth arise from a basal membrane that looks like delicate basket-work); it is this twisted structure that gives the genus Tortula its name. The MossCam Project will also allow us to monitor the phenology (i.e., the the timing of reproduction) of this plant. The MossCam Project is a joint endeavor by the James San Jacinto Mountains Reserve (http://www.jamesreserve.edu/) (Mike Hamilton and Sheri Lubin) and the Bryolab at UC Berkeley (http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/bryolab/) (Brent Mishler).

The Camera Installation:

Moss Camera # 1 Color C-mount Video Camera with 16 MM lens in weatherproof enclosure. This c-mount camera gives 420 lines of resolution and 0.45 LUX low light ability.
Moss Camera # 2 Black and White Infrared with 24 LEDS and a 12mm lens in a weatherproof enclosure.
Axis 2400 Video Server: The AXIS 2400 is a high-performance video server designed for professional applications. It can network up to four analog cameras which is a cost-effective single-box solution for transmitting digital video over intranet networks or the Internet   .
The Project: We started the project with a design on paper and a material list. After ordering the cameras and renting a trencher from a local equipment company, we trenched out a 165 foot line from the Lolomi Lodge to where the weatherproof enclosure would be placed. We dropped two 1 inch PVC conduits in the trench. We pulled three 12 gauge AC power lines in one conduit to provide power at the enclosure for the cameras. An Ethernet CAT5 cable was pulled in the other conduit to provide a computer signal for the Axis video server. The Axis video server and power transformers are housed inside the enclosure (image on the right). We poured a 4 foot by 4 foot concrete pad and moved the enclosure into place secured to the concrete pad with lag bolts. Two 3/4 inch weather tight flex conduits were buried from the enclosure to the moss rock. We pulled two RG59 shielded coaxial cables at 65 feet each through the flex conduit to provide video imagery from the moss cameras. A five pair shielded 22 gauge telephone cable was pulled through the other 3/4 inch flex conduit to provide low voltage power for the cameras. The two 12V DC camera transformers were spliced into the five pair shielded cable. These transformers are plugged into a plug strip with a breaker in the weatherproof enclosure. We soldered and shrink wrapped an RCA video end onto each coaxial cable and then plugged them into the Axis video server. At the moss camera end the coaxial cables and the two of the five pair wire have RCA video ends and power ends soldered onto them. The Ethernet cable is plugged into the Axis video server in the enclosure and into a G4 Mac at the Lolomi Lodge. We will create a webpage to display the images from both cameras. The cameras and weatherproof junction box are attached to a 4 x 4 redwood post. The cameras and post are about 14 inches away from the moss rock. We attached the black and white infrared camera to the underside of the color camera enclosure. Below you will find more pictures of the project as well as a material and price list.	Click on Images for larger view The trench dug from the Lolomi to the enclosure for power and Ethernet cable. Enclosure that houses Axis Video Server and AC power. The moss rock is located about 65 feet away from the enclosure. Larger power strip will be mounted to the back wall of the enclosure.

Enclosure and nearby nestbox with camera installed	Both color camera and black and white infrared camera mounted on a 4 x 4 redwood post with weatherproof junction box.	Black and white infrared is attached with screws to the underside of the color camera enclosure.
Wireless Oregon Scientific Weather Station with precipitation, barometric pressure, wind direction and speed, temperature and humidity sensors.	Wireless Oregon Scientific Weather Station	Wireless Oregon Scientific Weather Station
Moss rock	The moss hydrated (actual subject located on the upper right of the rock).	Moss dehydrated.
Merriam chipmunk (Eutamias merriami)	Merriam chipmunk (Eutamias merriami)	Moss after chipmunk visited.

Sheri Lubin 2002