Mosses, nature’s purifier, for reducing land use-derived metal and nutrient loads in catchments

Clean water is a crucially important natural resource. However, the aquatic ecosystems are threatened by climate change and increasing land use. Quantities of metals and nutrients rise, disrupting aquatic biodiversity and slowing down the decomposition. This results in water brownification and threatens the quality of drinking water. There is an urgent need for sustainable and cost-effective water treatment solutions. PUREWA (Mosses, nature’s purifier, for reducing land use-derived metal and nutrient loads in catchments) at Ecology and Genetics, Univ. Oulu, Finland aims to 1) Identify the most efficient moss-microbe combinations for phytoremediation of brownified water, 2) Understand the metabolic processes of phytoremediation, 3) Develop tools, and 4) Formulate recommendations on using mosses in phytoremediation. We bring sustainable solutions for cleaning water contaminations resulting from climate change and intensive exploitation of nature at the Arctic.