Adaptation to Environmental Extremes Structures Functional Traits in Biological Soil Crust and Hypolithic Microbial Communities

Abstract

Biocrusts serve as a keystone element of desert and dryland ecosystems, stabilizing soils, retaining moisture, and serving as a carbon and nitrogen source in oligotrophic environments. Biocrusts cover approximately 12% of the Earth’s terrestrial surface but are threatened by climate change and anthropogenic disturbance.