Studies of biological soil crusts (biocrusts) have proliferated over the last few decades. The
biocrust literature has broadened, with more studies assessing and describing the function …

Drylands encompass over 40% of terrestrial ecosystems and face significant anthropogenic
degradation causing a loss of ecosystem integrity, services, and deterioration of social …

Biocrusts are ecosystem engineers providing vital functions and services on the Earth's land
surface, while biocrust ecology in degraded karst landscapes has not yet been well …

Biological soil crusts are thin, inconspicuous communities along the soil atmosphere
ecotone that, until recently, were unrecognized by ecologists and even more so by …

Land surface albedo measures the degree to which the sun's radiation is absorbed or
reflected, and thus can be highly influential in global climate trends, local weather …

Interest in understanding the role of biocrusts as ecosystem engineers in drylands has
substantially increased during the past two decades. Mosses are a major component of …

Cyanobacteria are photosynthetic bacteria that form a fundamental part of soil biocrusts,
enhance soil function and structure, and can promote plant growth. We assessed the …

Biocrusts are phototroph‐driven communities inhabiting arid soil surfaces. Like plants, most
photoautotrophs (largely cyanobacteria) in biocrusts are thought to exchange fixed carbon …

The scholarship on evaporation has yet to fully comprehend the effects of biocrusts on
evaporation. This lacuna profoundly impacts our understanding regarding the hydrological …

Biological soil crust (BSC), as a groundcover, is widely intergrown with grass. The effects of
grass combined with BSCs on slope hydrology and soil erosion during rainfall are still …