Studies on effects of climate change in soil crust microbial community. biocrust metagenome

Given the primary role of cyanobacteria in biocrust formation and function, we investigated whether experimentally imposed drought versus a seasonal delay in monsoon rainfall affected the abundance and structure of cyanobacteria in soil crusts. We leveraged a large-scale, Extreme Drought in Grassland Experiment (EDGE) at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico, to examine effects on soil crusts during the third year of this on-going experiment.