Control of Mosses on Water Flux in an Alpine Shrub Site on the Qilian Mountains, Northwest China.

Mosses are an important component of the alpine shrub, but little is known about their contribution to ecosystem water and energy exchange, especially potential opportunities for alpine shrub expansion under a warming climate. We studied the role of mosses in alpine shrub evapotranspiration by conducting herb and moss removal experiments with different L. shrub coverage in the Qilian Mountains, Northwest China.