Jornada Basin LTER surface soils raw sequence reads

Soil microbial communities of biological soil crusts play important roles in water, carbon and nitrogen dynamics, biological weathering, and other nutrient releasing processes of desert ecosystems. While providing important ecosystem functions, soil microbes are vulnerable to disturbance and their loss can be detrimental to an ecosystem. Distribution patterns and ecological drivers of these microbial communities are poorly understood, especially so in the Chihuahuan Desert of southern New Mexico. This project investigated microbial composition and diversity, abiotic and biotic soil characteristics, and the effects of occasional trampling disturbance within soils from 5 vegetative zones within the Chihuahuan Desert. Composite samples were collected from the soil surface horizon in disturbed and undisturbed areas of long-term study plots. These samples were investigated for microbial community composition and structure and related to soil characteristics, geomorphology, and vegetation variables.