Carbon exchange responses of rehydrated and incubated biological soil crust samples from White Sands National Park in 2020-2022

This dataset contains photosynthetic light response data from
biological soil crusts collected from a gypsum sand sheet at White
Sands National Park, NM, USA in three different seasons. This study
aims to 1) assess the carbon fixation capacity of biocrust types; 2)
assess biocrust carbon fixation response under varying incubation
times; 3) and understand variability in carbon fixation response in
different seasons. Sample collection occurred in July 2020 (summer),
September 2021 (fall), and March 2022 (winter). The biocrust types
of interest were light cyanobacterial, dark cyanobacterial, Peltula
lichen, Clavascidium lichen, and moss crusts. Samples were collected
with the intention of taking carbon fixation measurements after
different incubation periods (30 min, 2 hr, 6 hr, 12hr, or 24 hr in
2020, and 30 min, 2 hr, 6 hr, 12hr, 24 hr, or 36 hr in 2021 and
2022). For each condition (biocrust type and incubation time) there
were five replicates in 2020 (total n=125) and ten replicates in
2021 and 2022 (total n=300). After collection, the intact samples
were re-wetted and subjected to their respective incubation period
and measured for photosynthetic response. The resulting light
response curves and photosynthetic information was be used for
comparing biocrust type, incubation time response differences, and
seasonal variation to understand variability of biocrust carbon flux
response at a single site. This data set includes the light response
curve values and photosynthetic data calculated from these curves
and raw LICOR output files compiled into 3 spreadsheet files. The
included 2020 data is also associated with the White Sands National
Park data from Jornada Study 549. This dataset accompanies the
in-press article by Hoellrich et al. (2023) cited below, and the
study is now complete. Hoellrich, Mikaela R., Darren K. James, David Bustos, Anthony
Darrouzet-Nardi, Louis S. Santiago, and Nicole Pietrasiak.
"Biocrust carbon exchange varies with crust type and time on
Chihuahuan Desert gypsum soils." Frontiers in Microbiology
14:1128631.