Community Metatranscriptomics of Biological Soil Crusts and Their Response to Wetting

Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) are microbial mat communities that are a feature of arid soils worldwide. In drylands where precipitation is pulsed and ephemeral, the ability of biocrust microbiota to rapidly resuscitate is critical to their survival. Community gene expression between dry and wetted biocrust soils was compared after a short duration (1 hour) wetting pulse in both intact and disturbed soils using metatranscriptome sequencing.