Japanese scientists have discovered that delicate mosses found on rocks and trees in cities around the world can be used as low-cost bioindicator to monitor urban pollution and to measure the impact of atmospheric climate change.

• Mosses respond to pollution or drought-stress by changing its shape, density and disappearing.
• This is how mosses act a bioindicators.
• Mosses are common flowerless plants found in damp or shady locations.
• It absorbs water and nutrients from its immediate environment and therefore, reflect changes in ecosystem.