Variation in snow cover drives differences in soil properties and microbial biomass of BSCs in the Gurbantunggut Desert—3 years of snow manipulations

Variations in snow cover (as specific precipitation) can have an important effect on development of biological soil crusts (BSCs) in arid and semiarid regions, where water is the principal limiting factor for microorganisms. However, there is still limited knowledge available regarding the effects of snowfall on soil properties and microbial biomass in BSCs. To examine these effects of snow cover, three types of BSCs (cyanobacteria‐dominated, lichen‐dominated, and moss‐dominated crusts) were collected and exposed to five snow depths for 3 years. The results indicated that most of the soil properties and soil microbial biomass were significantly (p < .05) affected by 3 years of snow manipulation in three types of BSCs. In BSCs, the values of most soil properties and microbial biomass were higher in the increased snow depth treatments relative the snow removal treatments. Moreover, there were variations in soil properties and microbial biomass among BSC types. In short, increases/decreases in snow cover had different effects on three types of BSCs after 3 years of manipulation. Moreover, increases in snow cover had a positive influence on soil properties and microbial biomass, but negative effects were observed in all BSCs following snow removal and snow reduction. Thus, variations in snow cover can drive differences in soil properties and microbial biomass of BSCs, which may further affect development and succession of BSCs in arid and semiarid regions.

• Publication year

  2019

• Venue

  Ecohydrology

• Publication date

  2019-07-15

• Fields of study

  Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1002/eco.2118
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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