Preliminary studies indicated that samples of moss varied widely in cell damage both before and after desiccation and rehydration. In the present study, various parameters associated with cell damage in mosses were investigated. Determination of the percent cell damage in a particular sample of moss requires that (i) a large number of cells be counted throughout a given leaf and (ii) a large number of leaves and shoots be utilized. The use of large sample size is necessitated by large variance within leaves and among leaves and shoots of the same clump. In the present study a standardized method was developed which involves counting at least 10 cells in six areas of each leaf, six leaves on each shoot, and 10 shoots per treatment. Although the variance within samples is still high, this method was found to be effective for indexing desiccation damage, providing a near perfect correlation with shoot survival (rensp;=ensp;0.98).
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