Composition and function of biological soil crust communities along topographic gradients in grasslands of central interior British Columbia (Chilcotin) and southwestern Yukon (Kluane)

Abstract

Grasslands in the rainshadow of the Chilcotin (British Columbia) and St. Elias (Kluane, Yukon) mountain ranges of western Canada are characterized by widely spaced clumps of bunchgrass and sage, between which can be found lichen-dominated biological soil crusts (BSC). Our examination of Chilcotin and Kluane grasslands showed differential BSC development along topographic gradients, favoring those sites with lower levels of soil disturbance. Lichen species richness was greatest in upper topographic positions, that is, on valley side terraces in the Chilcotin and esker slopes in Kluane. Common BSC lichens in both grasslands included Acarospora schleicheri, Caloplaca tominii , Collema tenax , Diploschistes muscorum , Fulgensia bracteata , Phaeorrhiza nimbosa , Placidium squamulosum , and Psora decipiens . Chilcotin BSC additionally contained many Cladonia species (e.g., C. carneola , C. chlorophaea , C. pyxidata ), particularly where vegetation had encroached on BSC. The potential for nitrogen fixation by Collema -dominated crusts in Kluane was examined using acetylene reduction assays (ARA) and soil surface microclimate monitoring. ARA activity was highly dependent upon the duration of wetting events, reaching C2H4 levels up to 63 μmol·m–2·h–1after 40 h of hydration. Given the abundance of Collema-dominated crusts in Kluane and the optimal conditions for ARA activity that are reached during wetting–drying transitions, we hypothesized that BSC communities potentially make an important contribution to ecosystem nitrogen budgets. Enrichment in total and mineralizable N, as well as 15N natural abundance values, was consistent with N fixation making an important contribution to soil N pools in these ecosystems. Both Chilcotin and Kluane BSC had similar spongy microstructures that contrasted with the platy microstructures of the underlying surface mineral soils, but only the latter site showed micromorphological evidence of burial of mosses and other BSC components by continuing loess deposition. BSC may have performed similar roles in analogous steppe-like ecosystems that existed under full-glacial conditions in the unglaciated areas of eastern Beringia in Alaska and Yukon.