Abstract
Biological soil crusts (BSCs) consist of a diverse and highly integrated community of organisms that effectively occupy and collectively stabilize soil surfaces. BSCs vary in terms of soil chemistry and texture as well as the environmental parameters that combine to support unique combinations of organisms – including cyanobacteria dominated, lichen-dominated, and bryophyte-dominated crusts. The list of organismal groups that make up BSC communities in various and unique combinations include – free living, lichenized, and mycorrhizal fungi, chemoheterotrophic bacteria, cyanobacteria, diazotrophic bacteria and archaea, eukaryotic algae, and bryophytes. The various BSC organismal groups demonstrate several common characteristics including – desiccation and extreme temperature tolerance, production of various soil binding chemistries, a near exclusive dependency on asexual reproduction, a pattern of aerial dispersal over impressive distances, and a universal vulnerability to a wide range of human-related perturbations. With this publication, we provide literature-based insights as to how each organismal group contributes to the formation and maintenance of the structural and functional attributes of BSCs, how they reproduce, and how they are dispersed. We also emphasize the importance of effective application of molecular and microenvironment sampling and assessment tools in order to provide cogent and essential answers that will allow scientists and land managers to better understand and manage the biodiversity and functional relationships of soil crust communities.
Highlights
Biological soil crusts (BSCs) have been most noticeable and researched in arid and semiarid environments where the vascular plant community tends to be dominated by smaller shrubs with open inter-shrub spaces that offer minimal competition for direct sunlight and provide for more equitable distribution of essential resources
BSCs are becoming more recognized in humid environments, including the humid tropics; where disturbance has temporarily removed vascular plants that normally compete for sunlight and other essential resources at soil surfaces
We provide a thorough discussion of the various modes of reproduction and dispersal employed by the core BSC organismal groups
Summary
Biological soil crusts (BSCs) consist of a diverse and highly integrated community of organisms that effectively colonize and collectively stabilize soil surfaces. The list of organismal groups that make up BSC communities in various and unique combinations include—free living, lichenized, and mycorrhizal fungi, chemoheterotrophic bacteria, cyanobacteria, diazotrophic bacteria and archaea, eukaryotic algae, and bryophytes. We provide literature-based insights as to how each organismal group contributes to the formation and maintenance of the structural and functional attributes of BSCs, how they reproduce, and how they are dispersed. Groups of organisms known to contribute to the formation BSC communities include cyano-, chemoheterotrophic, and diazotrophic bacteria, free-living, lichenized, and mycorrhizal fungi, terrestrial algae (including diatoms), and bryophytes (Belnap et al, 2001; Weber et al, 2016). In this review of BSC organisms, we evaluate each organismal group independently, documenting how they contribute to the formation of BSCs, and how they reproduce and disperse
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