When I was researching mosses and lichens, I found out that mosses accumulate heavy metals and lichens accumulate radioactive materials, and that they purify the soil. There are also plants called hyperaccumulators that grow in soil that contains a lot of metals that many plants are weak against, and accumulate substances that are negative for the soil.
Apparently, the Araliaceae plant, Acanthaceae, absorbs and stores manganese, the Dryopteris family, Acanthaceae, absorbs and stores cadmium and lead, and the Brassicaceae plant, Stanleya pinnata, absorbs and stores selenium. Apparently, these plants protect themselves from insects by storing metals, and in the absence of metals, they use energy to produce substances that insects dislike, and so do not grow large. Collecting metals has many benefits. Plants are amazing.
https://www.nies.go.jp/kanko/news/26/26-6/26-6-03.html
Next up on metals in the soil is the microorganisms known as oil-decomposing bacteria that break down oil in the ocean. Oil-decomposing bacteria are widely distributed both in the ocean and on land, and out of the roughly 10⁶ bacteria per ml of seawater, 100-104 are oil-decomposing bacteria. When oil is present in seawater, the bacteria multiply and account for more than 10% of the total.The ability to grow by using a specific substance as a nutrient source is called assimilation, and among oil-decomposing bacteria, those that break down alkanes are particularly important. Oil-decomposing bacteria are helping to purify the oceans.
https://www.nite.go.jp/nbrc/industry/other/bioreme2009/knowledge/bacteria/bacteria_1.html
Next up, we’ll look at the microorganisms that absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. A cyanobacterium nicknamed Choncus is said to have the ability to purify the air, absorbing large amounts of carbon dioxide at an astonishingly fast rate, more than any other bacterium ever discovered.It was discovered at a hydrothermal vent on the ocean floor where volcanic activity is active. The ecosystem of hydrothermal vents that produce so many species is amazing, and it’s truly amazing that such organisms that are necessary for the Earth exist there.
https://www.projectdesign.jp/articles/news/85d2dbf7-8b25-4fea-a0ad-e693da49986d
When I looked into microorganisms that break down plastic, I learned that various organisms purify the soil, water, oceans, and air, protecting ecosystems and returning various substances to the cycle. It’s amazing how the activities of living organisms are directly connected to purification. The Earth’s ability to purify itself is amazing.
