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