Cars and Kananaskis moss: researchers find evidence of vehicle emissions in ecosysyem

The moss in Kananaskis has a story to tell.

Researchers have been using the plant to study whether nitrogen from visitor vehicles has been seeping into the local plant population in the Alberta provincial park.

These sorts of studies have been done before but in populated areas like European cities, where vehicles are moving through in high volumes.

In Kananaskis, researcher Ann-Lise Norman said they weren't sure what levels of vehicle-contributed nitrogen they would detect in moss, if any. 

"I really thought we might not get anything," Norman said.

"We started to work with nitrogen isotopes and crossed our fingers — and then 20 years later found out that it worked." 

Located west of Calgary, Kananaskis is a popular outdoor destination that many visitors access by hopping in a vehicle. Driving to a trailhead for a day hike or another wilderness excursion is something many don't think twice about. 

But biological scientist Mary Reid, a professor emeritus at the University of Calgary, was interested in drilling down to understand how that norm, driving into a provincial park, might affect the environment. 

As part of a field course through the environmental science program at the U of C, researchers and students were able to return to the same area in Kananaskis, year after year, and collect moss to study. 

"It's really looking at an underappreciated component of the impact that people have on natural environments, which is the emissions that are produced by the vehicles of people accessing natural areas," Reid said.

"In an area that seems very pristine, do we actually detect inputs from vehicles into that ecosystem?"

The biggest help in answering that question was already growing in Kananaskis: the moss. 

Moss, Reid explained, doesn't get its nutrients from the soil. Instead, it draws from the air. 

"So they can be used as biomonitors," Reid said. "They're sitting out there day in, day out, in that environment and we can see what they're taking in and use that as a measure of air quality."