Uncovering biological soil crusts: carbon content and structure of intact Arctic, Antarctic and alpine biological soil crusts

Jung, Patrick; Briegel-Williams, Laura; Simon, Anika; Thyssen, Anne; Büdel, Burkhard

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-1149-2018

Articles | Volume 15, issue 4

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-1149-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Special issue:

Biological soil crusts and their role in biogeochemical processes...

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-1149-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 15, issue 4

Research article

|

23 Feb 2018

Research article |

| 23 Feb 2018

Uncovering biological soil crusts: carbon content and structure of intact Arctic, Antarctic and alpine biological soil crusts

Patrick Jung, Laura Briegel-Williams, Anika Simon, Anne Thyssen, and Burkhard Büdel

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Final revised paper (published on 23 Feb 2018)
Preprint (discussion started on 06 Oct 2017)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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RC1: 'manuscript is interesting, but has to be carefully corrected', Anonymous Referee #1, 30 Oct 2017
- AC1: 'Response to referees letter Referee #1 (Comments to the Author):', Patrick Jung, 15 Dec 2017
RC2: 'Uncovering biological soil crusts: Carbon content and structure of intact Artic, Antarctic and alpine biological soil crusts.', Anonymous Referee #2, 10 Nov 2017
- AC2: 'Response to referee letter Referee #2 (Comments to the Author):', Patrick Jung, 15 Dec 2017

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (27 Dec 2017) by Anita Antoninka

AR by Patrick Jung on behalf of the Authors (04 Jan 2018) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (19 Jan 2018) by Anita Antoninka

Short summary

Arctic, Antarctic and alpine biological soil crusts (BSCs) are formed by adhesion of soil particles to cyanobacteria. BSCs influence ecosystems services like soil erodibility and chemical cycles. In cold environments degradation rates are low and BSCs increase soil organic carbon through photosynthesis, whereby these soils are considered as CO₂ sinks. This work provides a novel method to visualize BSCs with a focus on cyanobacteria and their contribution to soil organic carbon.