Biological soil crusts of Hayes Island, Franz Josef Land, Russia: High cover, biomass and NDVI

摘要

Biological soil crusts (BSCs) are "…an intimate association between soil particles and cyanobacteria, algae, microfungi, lichens and bryophytes…which live within, or immediately on top of, the upper millimeters of soil" [Belnap & Lange 2003]. They are common in sparsely vegetated landscapes where they help to stabilize and protect soils from erosion. BSCs have been most thoroughly studied in the arid deserts and semi-deserts of the world, but they are also common in sparsely vegetated Arctic landscapes, especially the "polar deserts" [Bliss & Gold 1999] and on dry and barren microhabitats such as frost boils in more continuously vegetated tundra areas [Kade et al. 2005]. They fix nitrogen and improve site conditions for higher-plant seedling establishment, and have a marked effect on the soil thermal and hydrological properties and reduce the susceptibility of High Arctic soils to surface needle-ice cryoturbation [Bliss & Gold 1999].