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14 results in 'Alive: BSC Notes'

    Alive: BSC Notes

    • Its Alive: Biological Soil Crusts in the Sonoran and Chihuahuan Deserts

    • BSC = Biological soil crust made of cyanobacteria = blue green algae, one of the oldest lifeforms on earth also made of scaly lichens, furry mosses, micro fungi, bacteria, green algae

    • BSC can regenerate in a few years, but moss/lichen can take decades or more

    • living groundcover, foundation of desert

    • CD BSCs are flatter than other BSCs (black knobby BSCs in Moab or lush BSCs in NW USA)

    • often grow under a shrub for shelter

    • primary function to hold soil together

    • when wet BSCs move through soil leaving behind long sticky fibers creating a sponge-like structure where moss algae, fungi, lichen to live on

    • mosses/lichen anchor the soil in place

    • BSC don't even have to be alive to provide stability, up to 10 cm deep [difference in living/dead depth?]

    • Look dead and dry until a sprinkle of water

    • BSCs can convert atmospheric nitrogen into a useable form

    • BSCs store water/nutrients/organic matter like a sponge

    • Trampling by feet or machines are destructive to BSCs, increasing erosion tracks from vehicles can form channels for water, very erosional

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