Summer scientist Luis, enlightens us on the mosses of Macquarie island. Clive asks the question about the ‘Mysterious Macca Man-made Trench near Scoble lake?'. Billy takes us down to the macro level of rocks and mushrooms.

Macquarie Island mosses

I am currently on Macquarie Island as part of the Poa annua alien plant project. While I have been here on the island I have had the opportunity to observe the local mosses.

I have worked on mosses in the Antarctic Peninsula and find the Macquarie Island ones really interesting. There are so many and they are really quite cool! On Macca there are 84 species! This is double the number of vascular plants on the island. Most people don’t know that mosses are an important of part of Macca ecosystem; for example they make up a lot of the terrestrial biomass and store water for other organisms.

The photographs below this article are referenced.

They house all kinds of tiny critters such as springtails and mites (photo F1). The mosses are usually tiny and that makes them harder to spot. Often you have to kneel down in order to see them closely, which is not desirable when walking around with a full backpack all the time.

I thought I would describe some of the most common ones.The black ones that are abundant on coastal rocks are called Muelleriella crassifolia, (photo F2). Ulota phyllanta seems to like to grow on wood, so can be easily spotted on the old buildings around station (photo F3). Bryum argenteum literally translates to silver moss, a fairly apt name (photo F4).

In wet areas on slopes Breutelias are the most common (photo F5). Polytrichaceas are either like tiny palm trees or junipers growing in mineral soils (photo F6). In the plateau we all see big guys growing in “polsters” (pillows), usually being Ditrichum striatum (photo F7).

But probably the most common moss on the plateau is Racomitrium crispulum often seen with the beautiful cushion plant Azorella macquariensis. Another quite elegant and common moss is Racomitrium pruinosum, covered in fine grey hairs (photo F8). Andreaeas (photo F9) are the black tufted mosses, their presence indicated harsh.

And finally, best not to forget liverworts. Most people see Marchantia bertoana (photo F10) but there are many more, most of which go unnoticed; there are 52 species. I have found a few but most are still waiting to be found. Challenge accepted! Check the moss flora of Macquarie Island by R. Seppelt 2004 which provides more interesting information on these amazing organisms.

Luis R. Pertierra is an ecologist from the Spanish Polar Program and is a guest of the 2013–14 Australian expedition (photo F11). He is participating with the project AAS 4158 that has been reported in a previous Icy News.

F1 — tiny mite on a blade of moss. The enlarged microscopic mite can be seen in some detail showing his antennae, one eye and three of its legs. You can make out some hair-like features on it’s carpace
F2 — Muelleriella crassifolia, the black moss that is abundant on coastal rocks
F3 — Ulota phyllanta grows on wood, so can be easily spotted on the old buildings around station
F4 — macro image showing fine detail of Bryum argenteum which literally translates to silver moss, a fairly apt name
F5 — A macro image of Breutelias are the most common on the wet areas on slopes
F6 — A macro image of Polytrichaceas are either like tiny palm trees or junipers growing in mineral soils. You can see several tree-like stalks appearing out of ‘the undergrowth'
F7 — Ditrichum striatum. In the plateau we all see this moss in “polsters” (pillows). This image shows a clump (pillow) clinging to a rocky surface with stalks appearing out of the mass
F8 — A macro image of another quite elegant and common moss is Racomitrium pruinosum, covered in fine grey hairs
F9 — A macro image of Andreaeas which are the black tufted mosses
F10 — A macro image of Marchantia bertoana which is a commonly seen livewort on the island. There are many more examples of livewort species (52), but many go unnoticed
F11 — Luis Pertierra — author of this item and photographer of the images. It is a side profile of Luis looking at some moss on a rock stack near the station

Mysterious Macca man-made trench near Scoble Lake

Calling all past ANARE Expeditioners to help solve this mystery.

A couple of hundred metres south of Scoble Lake is a very interesting man-made feature.

A trench has been excavated, about 16 metres long, a couple of metres wide and about 2 metres at its deepest. It lines up with part of the Island Lake track that approached Scoble Lake from the north. There is some cable in the trench, an iron picket as well as a piece of wall or roof material.

Could this be related to the old telephone line from the station to Bauer Bay hut? When was it excavated? What was the purpose? Who was involved? What happens to it now? We at Macca would love to find out.

Clive Strauss

Bianca and Keith are in the misty background at the top of the trench. The view is from the lower end of the trench
Bianca and Keith standing at the top end of the trench. There is mist drifting over the site. A metal panel lies half buried about halfway along the trench and a rusty pipe can be seen exposed near the top of the trench
Josh inside the trench. The view is from the top of the trench on a sunny day with an unnamed lake in the background. Some cable can be seen coming out of the top of the trench
Josh standing in the trench at its deepest end. It is a sunny day and an unnamed lake can be seen in the background
Josh standing next to the trench — that lines up with the Island Lake Track which can be seen in the distant background. It is a clear sunny day and Josh is wearing shorts, T-shirt, though he is wearing gumboots. A rusted star picket can be seen in the end of the trench
Keith, leaning down over the trench, closely examining a panel about halfway up the trench
Lachlan, carrying a backpack and two walking poles, stands with Clive who is wearing his wet weather gear and carrying one walking pole. The view is from inside the trench and some cable can be seen coming out of the trench

Down at the rock and mushroom

During January and February I took a lot more interest in what was underfoot and got down low with the eyes and the macro setting on the point and shoot. Well all I can say is that it’s amazing what’s at ground level on the island.

All sorts of mushrooms and toadstools popping through. Lichen of all descriptions, some that look like coral growing on land, others like a mass of thin noodles. There are mosses of many colours, liverworts, really tiny yellow and white flowers plus minute red ones. I was amazed at the variety of what was growing underfoot.

To think over the first ten months of being on the island most of it had gone unnoticed. Such was the intensity of the searching for evidence of rabbits, if it wasn’t something that looked like rabbit droppings, grazing or the likes I walked past it.

Other little gems that caught my eye were the colours and patterns of the small rocks. There is an area south of Boot Hill to an area on the plateau just northwest of Bauer Bay that I was working. It held a large quantity of these little gems. Rocks of many colours, layered rock, composites, shiny ones, light ones, dark ones, all sorts everywhere. Just like the flora, see something of interest photograph it then walk another step or two and something else would pop into view.

The macro world was getting to me. I was wishing I could take a holiday and just wander about for a few ‘sunny’ days just taking pictures of all the fascinating things that grow and the rocks that are laying there, just underfoot.

I can dream, just keep walking and looking for the rabbit Billy, on you go!

May just get the DSLR camera out next time instead of my little point and shoot as I head up the track. Though I can’t complain, aren’t cameras amazing nowadays?

Steve (Billy) Barton

Macro image of a small rock that has blue flecks of lichen on its surface
A macro image of a small rock that looks like a brain
A macro image of Coprasma, which looks like a cherry tomato, in the dicranoloma moss which is brown/yellow in colour
The dreaded ‘buzzie'. A close up of a buzzie seed pod — the plant that always sticks to anything. The barbs can be seen on individual stalks
A macro close up of white ephilobium flower on the ned of a orange stalk. Four stamen can be seen in the flower
'Fried egg’ lichen. The lichen on this small rock looks like a shrivelled up fried egg
Green pinstripe. A macro image of a small rock that is greeny-blue in colour and has fin veins of white through it
Macca pixies paradise. Close up of several tiny fungi amongst a green bed of dew covered plant. There is dry brown grass inter dispersed
Mushy in juncus — a pair of mushrooms, one larger, shown in fine detail amongst some blades of juncus (rushes) grass
Noodly lichen — looks like white dried noodles or exposed root system
One of the ‘land corals’ lichen. A beautiful white and black lichen that looks like coral growing out of vivid green azorella plant
A macro close-up image of Phylon rock. The interior of the small rock has black fibrous masses within
A macro code-up image of racomitrium pruinosum (moss species)
Saturn veined rock — A small rock with a specked blue and white vein through it. The plateau and a azorella plant mass can be seen out of focus in the background
Spot the bug — a tiny purple coloured insect sits on a orange coloured mushroom top, which is growing amongst seemingly large grass leaves
Strata rock — a close-up of a small rock which consists of layers of different coloured veins and layers which criss-cross the rock
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