Biological Soil Crusts: Characteristics and Distribution

Belnap, Jayne; Büdel, Burkhard; Lange, O. L.

doi:10.1007/978-3-642-56475-8_1

Cited by 342 publications

(350 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Many of the bacterial and fungal taxa recovered in our study displayed high similarities to biological soil crust (BSC) organisms [7]. A limitation of our study is that well developed biological soil crusts were not encountered during this study.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…These include cyanobacteria belonging to the genera, Pseudanabaenaceae, Chroococcidiopsis, Phromidium, Microcoleus [13,25,[31][32][33]; heterotrophic bacterial phylotypes belonging to the genera Rubrobacter, Arthrobacter, Sphingomonas, Chloroflexus, Roseiflexus, Pontibacter [9,34], fungal phylotypes belonging to, Mattirolomyces, Ascobolus, Chaetomium, Preussia, Chaetothyriales, Rhodotorula [7,35]; and archaeal phylotypes belonging to Methanosarcina and Thermotoplasmata [36]. The key finding that fungi dominate sand dunes whereas bacteria dominate soils is of interest.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Biodiversity of desert microbial communities has been relatively well studied (see for example recent reviews: [2,5,6]. Soil surfaces may support well-defined biological soil crusts dominated by cyanobacteria, fungi, lichens and mosses, and these have been extensively studied [7]. Similarly the cyanobacterial and lichenized lithic microbial communities of desert pavements and exposed rocks have also received significant recent attention [2,5,8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Microbial Diversity in Soil, Sand Dune and Rock Substrates of the Thar Monsoon Desert, India

et al. 2015

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A culture-independent diversity assessment of archaea, bacteria and fungi in the Thar Desert in India was made. Six locations in Ajmer, Jaisalmer, Jaipur and Jodhupur included semi-arid soils, arid soils, arid sand dunes, plus arid cryptoendolithic substrates. A real-time quantitative PCR approach revealed that bacteria dominated soils and cryptoendoliths, whilst fungi dominated sand dunes. The archaea formed a minor component of all communities. Comparison of rRNA-defined community structure revealed that substrate and climate rather than location were the most parsimonious predictors. Sequence-based identification of 1240 phylotypes revealed that most taxa were common desert microorganisms. Semi-arid soils were dominated by actinobacteria and alpha proteobacteria, arid soils by chloroflexi and alpha proteobacteria, sand dunes by ascomycete fungi and cryptoendoliths by cyanobacteria. Climatic variables that best explained this distribution were mean annual rainfall and maximum annual temperature. Substrate variables that contributed most to observed diversity patterns were conductivity, soluble salts, Ca 2? and pH. This represents an important addition to the inventory of desert microbiota, novel insight into the abiotic drivers of community assembly, and the first report of biodiversity in a monsoon desert system.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 89%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Microbial Diversity in Soil, Sand Dune and Rock Substrates of the Thar Monsoon Desert, India

et al. 2015

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“…The relative abundance of these organisms varies according to ecological conditions of the micro-habitat 3 . BSCs occurring in arid and semi-arid zones account for about 30% of the total world landscape 4 ; they appear crunchy when dried 5 . In the temperate region mosses and lichens dominate in the crusts, whereas in arid zones where water is a limiting factor, cyanobacteria are found to be the major components along with a few green algal species 4,6 .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…BSCs occurring in arid and semi-arid zones account for about 30% of the total world landscape 4 ; they appear crunchy when dried 5 . In the temperate region mosses and lichens dominate in the crusts, whereas in arid zones where water is a limiting factor, cyanobacteria are found to be the major components along with a few green algal species 4,6 . Cyanobacteria species in soil crusts in the arid zones of India remain dormant during most of the year and appear to form visible biofilms soon after monsoon rainfall 3 .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Diversity of Cyanobacteria in Biological Crusts on Arid Soils in the Eastern Region of India and their Molecular Phylogeny

2016

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The biological crusts on lateritic soils, red soils and mine-waste burdened soils in the eastern region of India covering a transect of about 800 km were principally composed of sheathed cyanobacteria of the genera Scytonema, Tolypothrix and Lyngbya along with few other species of Cylindrospermum, Nostoc, Calothrix and Fischerella. Molecular phylogeny based on 16S rRNA gene sequence of these cyanobacteria along with those occurring in different habitats of four

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Green land: Multiple perspectives on green algal evolution and the earliest land plants

McCourt

Lewis

Strother

et al. 2023

American J of Botany

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Green plants, broadly defined as green algae and the land plants (together, Viridiplantae), constitute the primary eukaryotic lineage that successfully colonized Earth's emergent landscape. Members of various clades of green plants have independently made the transition from fully aquatic to subaerial habitats many times throughout Earth's history. The transition, from unicells or simple filaments to complex multicellular plant bodies with functionally differentiated tissues and organs, was accompanied by innovations built upon a genetic and phenotypic toolkit that have served aquatic green phototrophs successfully for at least a billion years. These innovations opened an enormous array of new, drier places to live on the planet and resulted in a huge diversity of land plants that have dominated terrestrial ecosystems over the past 500 million years. This review examines the greening of the land from several perspectives, from paleontology to phylogenomics, to water stress responses and the genetic toolkit shared by green algae and plants, to the genomic evolution of the sporophyte generation. We summarize advances on disparate fronts in elucidating this important event in the evolution of the biosphere and the lacunae in our understanding of it. We present the process not as a step‐by‐step advancement from primitive green cells to an inevitable success of embryophytes, but rather as a process of adaptations and exaptations that allowed multiple clades of green plants, with various combinations of morphological and physiological terrestrialized traits, to become diverse and successful inhabitants of the land habitats of Earth.

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Biological Soil Crusts: Characteristics and Distribution

Cited by 342 publications

References 30 publications

Microbial Diversity in Soil, Sand Dune and Rock Substrates of the Thar Monsoon Desert, India

Microbial Diversity in Soil, Sand Dune and Rock Substrates of the Thar Monsoon Desert, India

Diversity of Cyanobacteria in Biological Crusts on Arid Soils in the Eastern Region of India and their Molecular Phylogeny

Green land: Multiple perspectives on green algal evolution and the earliest land plants

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