Pollution Killing Rare Stoneworts

Stoneworts are considered to be important for understanding the evolutionary origin of land plants. Plantlife International claims nitrate and phospate runoff is threatening to exterminate many of the species found in Britain.

The report by Plantlife International suggests three-quarters of the necessary wetland areas required by stoneworts are subject to massive nutrient pollution. The pollutants from fertilizer and soaps runoff spur growth of competing species, eliminating habitat for the more fragile stoneworts.

Links:

• Pollution damages rare UK plants from the BBC News.


• International Research Group on Charophytes - includes fossil images of stoneworts

Posted by Eric La Fountaine at 3:16 PM on May 21, 2004

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