The designation promotes sustainable development, conservation, and research of the approximately 12-million-acre (4.9-million-hectare) region.
Anderson, who is also a research associate with the University of Magallanes Omora Ethnobotanical Park, a public-private operation in the Cape Horn Archipelago, says the bryophyte research was instrumental in the establishment of the reserve.
"It put into the value the southern region of Chile compared to other places with higher diversity of larger, more easily recognizable taxa," he said.
Unique Mosses
According to the New York Botanical Garden's Buck, the geography of South America, which narrows to a point as it extends toward the South Pole, likely explains the bounty of mosses.
"A lot of things have real narrow distributions, partly because there's no more land to be distributed on," he said. "You also get a lot of fairly rare things down there."
Anderson explains that while the diversity of most plants and animals decreases as latitude increases, the trend reverses for the bryophytes.
He said between 5 and 7 percent of the world's mosses and liverworts are found in the Cape Horn Archipelago.
In the island chain, as in most parts of the world, mosses prevent erosion and maintain forest humidity, among other ecological services. The plants soak up water during rainstorms, which prevents excessive runoff, and then slowly release the water for several days after the storm.
"That keeps humidity in the forest fairly constant," Buck said.
Tourism with a Hand Lens
Scientists and conservationists are now working with the Chilean government to put the Cape Horn Archipelago's bryophytes in the spotlight of ecotourism.
The Magallanes and Chilean Antarctic Regional Government recently funded a series of guide books on the region, including the Miniature Forests of Cape Horn, which describes the mosses.
Now local guides in Puerto Williams, the capital city of the region, are being taught how to identify the mosses and liverworts, with the idea that they will take tourists to visit the "miniature forests," Anderson says.
The concept, coined "tourism with a hand lens," is already established at the Omora Ethnobotanical Park, Buck notes.
When visitors arrive at the park, they are given handheld magnifying glasses.
"When they put it up to their eyes, they see a whole new world," Buck said. "It's the equivalent to using a telescope to look at the stars."
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