**7. Dispersion of land plants**

Birds can contribute to the long-distance dispersion of spores and seeds. In the first case, they can carry diaspores of fungi, mosses and pteridophytes transcontinentally (the latter group does not yet occur in Antarctica). Seeds in general can be carried via the digestive tract even. Some first evidences of dispersion of microscopic bryophyte spores have been published, where the case studied presents a transequatorial dispersion, with species carrying diaspores from one pole to the other or at least from the southern part of South America to the North Pole. Algae cells, fragments of moss leaves, elatheria and fungal spores have been found [65]. With the temperature registered due to climate changes, it is expected that new mosses may occur from introductions with the participation of birds in Antarctica.

Many birds carry these structures passively, as they can land on the fields, brush against them, use plants from these groups as material for their nests and even ingest material when transporting the food that is taken to the nests, or when feeding on carcasses arranged on plant communities (**Figures 12**–**14**). As any fragments of mosses may be sufficient to germinate and form new plants, many species in Antarctica today may have arrived there using transport in the bodies of birds and many more can be introduced in the future.

Feces can also introduce botanical material, as long as it is possible for structures to survive mechanical crushing and chemical bombardment of the digestive tract. The fact that they are eliminated with feces guarantees at least an initial supply of nutrients for their development and, since they are very small plants, the supply deposited once, may even be available for some years.

Despite this, the wind is the most important disperser of Antarctic mosses and lichens, since their main reproductive structures are spores or thallus fragments.
