"The Recovery of Microbiotic Crusts Following Post-Fire Rehabilitation " by Julienne Hilty Kaltenecker

The Recovery of Microbiotic Crusts Following Post-Fire Rehabilitation on Rangelands of the Western Snake River Plain

Publication Date

11-1997

Type of Culminating Activity

Thesis

Degree Title

Master of Science in Interdisciplinary Studies, Plant Ecology and Soil Science

Department Filter

Interdisciplinary Studies

Department

Interdisciplinary Studies

Supervisory Committee Chair

Maria C. Wicklow-Howard

Supervisory Committee Member

Robert C. Rychert

Supervisory Committee Member

Mark A. Seyfried

Abstract

Microbiotic crusts occur as a thin layer of bryophytes (mosses and liverworts), lichens, microfungi, algae, and cyanobacteria in arid and semiarid plant communities world-wide (St. Clair & Johansen 1993). In Wyoming big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata Nutt. ssp. wyomingensis Beetle & Young)/bunchgrass associations on the western Snake River Plain in southwestern Idaho, this biotic layer occupies the interspaces between shrubs and bunchgrasses, essentially forming a diminutive community within the confines of the vascular plant complex. In many cases, the microbiotic crust creates a rough, undulating or pedicelled microtopography, contributing to the complexity of the "microcommunity" (Harper & Marble 1988) via creation of numerous microhabitats.

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