To better understand the effects of biological soil crusts (BSCs) on soil moisture and wind erosion and study the necessity and feasibility of disturbance of BSCs in the Mu Us sandland, the effects of four treatments, including moss-dominated crusts alone, Artemisia ordosica alone, bare sand, and Artemisia ordosica combined with moss-dominated crusts, on rainwater infiltration, soil moisture, a...

In this study, we conducted rainfall simulation experiments in a cool desert ecosystem to examine the role of biological soil crust disturbance and composition on dissolved and sediment C and N losses. We compared runoff and sediment C and N losses from intact latesuccessional dark cyanolichen crusts (intact) to both trampled dark crusts (trampled) and dark crusts where the top 1 cm of the soil...

Tracking the presence, distribution and disappearance of biological soil crusts is important for ecosystem management of desert regions and provides highly valuable information on desertification and climate change studies in arid environments. Based on the analysis of the spectral features of biological soil crusts, we propose a new biological soil crust index (BSCI) for biological soil crusts...

Biological soil crusts are key mediators of carbon and nitrogen inputs for arid land soils and often represent a dominant portion of the soil surface cover in arid lands. Free-living soil nematode communities reflect their environment and have been used as biological indicators of soil condition. In this study, we test the hypothesis that nematode communities are successionally more mature bene...

The objective of this study was to characterize the community structure and activity of N2-fixing microorganisms in mature and poorly developed biological soil crusts from both the Colorado Plateau and Chihuahuan Desert. Nitrogenase activity was approximately 10 and 2.5 times higher in mature crusts than in poorly developed crusts at the Colorado Plateau site and Chihuahuan Desert site, respect...

Rapid identification and large-scale mapping of salt-affected lands will help improve salinity management in watersheds and ecosystems. This study was conducted to examine spectral reflectance of soils treated with saline solutions containing NaCl, NaHCO3, Na2SO4, and CaSO4.2H2O. Spectral reflectance was measured upon salt crusts formed on two soils (Torrifluvents) subirrigated with saline solu...

Biological desert crusts are relatively common in the arid deserts of the Sultanate of Oman; however, little is known about their microbial community composition and role in soil fertilization. We compared three crusts from geographically different locations for their soil texture, bacterial community structure, pigment composition and nitrogenase activity. The crusts were growing on alkaline (...

Hawaiian soils having hard sterile surfaces have been described by Sherman et al; 1 Published with the approval of the Director of the University of Hawaii Agricultural Experiment Station, Honolulu, T. H., as Technical Paper No. 196. Manuscript received March 16, 1950. "Chairman, Department of Soils and Agricultural Chemistry, University of Hawaii Agricultural Experiment Station. MASSIVE FERRUG...

Soil salt crusts are special layers at soil surface which are widely distributed in the Trim Desert Highway Shelterbelt under drip-irrigation with high salinity groundwater. In order to reveal annual variation of their chemical characteristics, soil salt crusts in shelterbelt of different ages in hinterland of the Taklimakan Desert were sampled. SOM, total salt, inions and pH were analyzed. Fol...