Principles of biogeography - Fundamentals of the Physical Environment - page 499

Bare rock surface Initial colonisation by lichen

(fungi and algae) and mosses

CO 2

N 2

Carbon and nitrogen
from atmosphere

Lichen and moss residues lead
to a build up of organic matter

Colonisation by higher plants

Higher plants able
to use nutrients
in organic matter

Organic
matter

Figure 20.10 Lithosere showing initial colonization by lower plants (lichens and mosses).
Source: After Ashman and Puri (2002)

Plate 20.4 Lithoseres are generally very slow. They can be speeded up in abandoned quarries by hydroseeding, and on bare
rock for farming use by importing topsoil from elsewhere, as in this area in Anatolian Turkey.
Photo: Ken Atkinson