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Abstract

The initiation of desiccation-avoidance response in Sphagnum moss has commonly been described as “air-seeding,” a mechanism that assumes desiccation response is dependent on differential pressure and hyaline cell pore size [3]. Yet few studies have addressed differential pressure in water-storage hyaline cells since the theorization that this process applies to Sphagnum desiccation avoidance. Our study takes the novel approach of utilizing microscopic analysis and the Hagen-Poiseuille equation to investigate the effect of cell width on differential pressure. We found that maximum differential pressure values decreased as cell widths increased, a trend consistent with previous research. However, the presence of a range of low differential pressures within each cell width category did not match the air-seeding theory. This suggests that further investigation of cell shape and other cellular properties could lead to more precise descriptions of Sphagnum desiccation avoidance.