Distribution of Biological Soil Crusts on a Young Glacial Foreland in Southern Iceland and Their Role in Primary Succession

Lawrence H. Tanner ()
Additional contact information
Lawrence H. Tanner: Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Le Moyne College, Syracuse, NY 13214, USA

Land, 2025, vol. 14, issue 9, 1-15

Abstract: This work examines the occurrence of biological soil crusts (BSCs) on glacial foreland moraines and their relationship to other vegetative components of the post-glacial landscape. BSCs on moraines of all ages are biologically complex composites of cyanobacteria, mosses, lichens, liverworts, and fungi. The amount of surface cover by BSCs and other components of the successional communities vary approximately with the ages of the surfaces. During the pioneer successional stage, BSCs are more abundant than other community components and consist primarily of filamentous cyanobacteria. On the youngest moraines, vascular plants, with the exception of graminoids, occur exclusively where BSCs are present. On successively older moraines, the coverage by mosses and vascular plants generally increases while that of BSCs decreases, although substantial variations occur that are attributed to exposure to environmental factors, primarily wind. Overall successional patterns suggest an essential role of BSCs in facilitating vascular plant colonization mainly during the pioneer stage, likely through enhancement of soil moisture and nutrient availability. The importance of facilitation by BSCs appears to decrease on older moraines as BSCs are replaced or subsumed by vascular plants and mosses.

Keywords: biological soils crusts; primary succession; glacial foreland; chronosequence; cyanobacteria; liverworts; moraine (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/14/9/1827/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/14/9/1827/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:14:y:2025:i:9:p:1827-:d:1744336

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

More articles in Land from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().