The eight mosses,including Thuidium lepidoziaceum,Rhytidium rugosum,Dicranum a-ssamicum,Mnium sp.,Rhytidiadelphus triquetrus,Actinotiuidium hookeri,Polytrichum alpinum,Entodon concinnus and Hylocomium splendens,are all common in subalpine coniferous forest in the Eastern Tibetan Plateau.The objective is to compare and detect their differences in water ho-lding capacity under5different habitats and desiccation process of two environmental condi-tions.Water contents in5different habitats were determined.Their changes of water retention capacity under two kinds of indoor environments were measured.The results indicated that water contents of all bryophytes were higher under virgin forest than under other four habitats.In eight species,P.alpinum has the lowest natural water content,while Mnium sp.has the highest under all five different habitats.There existed negative correlation between water holding and water retention capacities,and their water holding capacities tend to decrease temporally,an indication of the same tendency both in the process and the ratio of moisture loss under the same environment.However,there existed significant difference in retention capacity of different species,which was probably resulted from different adaptabilities to moisture stress and habitats change,and discrepancy of the mechanisms of physiological habituation and co-evolution to the environment changes of different species.The results also imply that water holding capacity in all eight species decreases significantly after a desiccation-hydration-redesiccation process.This is probably related to that cell damage induced by first time water stress in the desiccation process.All the parameters of water holding and retention capacities of eight species under different habitats showed that H.splendens,A.hookeri and P.alpinum are potential biological indicators on forest-floor environmental change resulted from forest depletion.