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Cryptobiotic Soil
37.6283, -112.168
Field Notes
Description:
Cryptobiotic soil crusts, consisting of soil cyanobacteria, lichens and mosses, play an important ecological roles in the arid Southwest. In the cold deserts of the Colorado Plateau region (parts of Utah, Arizona Colorado, and New Mexico), these crusts are extraordinarily well-developed, often representing over 70 percent of the living ground cover.
Cryptobiotic crusts increase the stability of otherwise easily eroded soils, increase water infiltration in regions that receive little precipitation, and increase fertility in soils often limited in essential nutrients such as nitrogen and carbon
Notes:
This soil is so fragile and so much a part of the southwest. When you hike into remote areas where the soils havent been disturbed the cryptobiotc soil can be a foot deep representing thousands of years of growth
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