Responses of biological soil crusts to rehabilitation strategies

Taylor Chock; Anita J. Antoninka; Akasha M. Faist; Matthew A. Bowker; Jayne Belnap; Nichole N. Barger

doi:10.1016/j.jaridenv.2018.10.007

Responses of biological soil crusts to rehabilitation strategies

Journal of Arid Environments

By: Taylor Chock, Anita J. Antoninka, Akasha M. Faist, Matthew A. Bowker, Jayne Belnap, and Nichole N. Barger

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaridenv.2018.10.007

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Abstract

Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) are common to dryland ecosystems and can influence a broad suite of soil ecological functions including stability and surface hydrology. Due to long recovery times following disturbance, there is a clear need for rehabilitation strategies to enhance the recovery of biocrust communities. Essential to biocrust recovery are exopolysaccharides (EPS): secretions comprised mainly of high molecular weight polymers that protect cyanobacteria from harsh environmental conditions. We examined whether biocrust rehabilitation strategies (inoculation in combination with surface shading and artificial soil stabilization) promote EPS production. To test if responses varied by soil texture, we measured biocrust recovery on two fine-textured soil types (clay and sandy clay loam) in a cool desert ecosystem. Shade coupled with inoculum addition resulted in the highest biocrust recovery, especially on clay soils. Independent of rehabilitation strategies, natural recovery of biocrusts occurred more rapidly on clay soils, reflected by greater increases in chlorophyll a (chl a). Chl a, a proxy for cyanobacterial biomass, was correlated to EPS amounts, suggesting that cyanobacteria are significant contributors to EPS production in biocrust development. Despite the role of EPS in biocrust establishment, EPS amounts had negligible effects on soil stability due inherent properties of fine soil texture.

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Additional publication details
Publication type	Article
Publication Subtype	Journal Article
Title	Responses of biological soil crusts to rehabilitation strategies
Series title	Journal of Arid Environments
DOI	10.1016/j.jaridenv.2018.10.007
Volume	163
Year Published	2019
Language	English
Publisher	ELSEVIER
Contributing office(s)	Southwest Biological Science Center
Description	9 p.
First page	77
Last page	85
Country	United States
State	Utah
Other Geospatial	HIll Air Force Base
Google Analytic Metrics	Metrics page