Learning a new flora: biocrusts of Geitasandur, Iceland

Geitasandur means "goat sand plain" more or less, which is a pretty cool name. I'll tell you more of its interesting story later. For now, I'm prepping to survey this flora next week. I grabbed over 20 species, mosses and lichens, in a quick visit last week, mostly new to me. So, I'm in that stage of examining, identifying to some degree, and assigning pseudonyms so that I don't have to call everything "unknown lichen 1 - 45". Maybe you can help. Please feel free to suggest some taxa in the comments that I can verify with a key (or an expert) later. By the way, though some species may be shared, this community is totally different from the highlands snow bed community I mentioned previously.

Here's what I grabbed, I imagine there's about 30 species total out there.

Photo 1.Two interesting fruticose lichens. Someone must know the brown one. I've seen the genus before, but don't know it. The white one with a bluish cast is a Stereocaulon. There seem to be multiple species in that genus at the site (S. alpinum is there; but S. arcticum and others are plausible).

Photo 2. I'm curious about that deeply lobed foliose lichen, growing among Polytrichum stems.

Photo 3. Could be Protopannaria, maybe Psoroma. Any other ideas?

Photo 4. Absolutely my favorite! My mind goes to Solorina or Peltigera. It's small, only a couple cm in diameter.

Photo 5. Lots going on here. Good view of a Racomitrium cushion, concealing a Cladonia. But there appears to be two white-rimmed orange things here. 

Photo 6. The little one in the middle. Reminds me of a (miniature) Toninia, maybe Buellia, but probably isn't.

Photo 7. Here's one of the Stereocaulon. Tidy crowded cushion, usually pretty big (3 -5 cm diameter, 1-3 cm tall).

Photo 8. Another beauty. Peltigera for sure, clear dark veins underneath. Reasonably matches P. leucophlebia, but I have not keyed it to be sure.

Photo 9. My second favorite, Very cryptic when standing, but it really pops when you're near the ground. Reminds me of  a Psora, but not one I've met.

The Fulbright Global Scholar program is making it possible for me to spend about the next 3 months in Iceland conducting research and building connections (disclaimer: any views I express in this blog are mine and do not represent the Fulbright Program or the US Government).

It's alive!

I mean this blog (it's been dormant, not dead), and the biocrust in this picture. There are no rocks in this foreground of this photo. The rolling gray micro-hills are the liverwort Anthelia juratzkana. The orange sporophytes are those of a Polytrichum. Then you can see tufts of another moss. Also present are lichens such as Stereocaulon (not visible in this photo, but they are around). This is one of the prevailing community types in the Icelandic highlands, translating to a moss snow bed community. Apparently highland soils dry out quickly and easily, even though the climate is wet, low lying areas with late snow are needed to support this community. Once these crusts occur, the soil N increases strongly, and also importantly, frost heaving caused by needle ice is reduced. Under these conditions, vascular plants may germinate.

Lest you think this community is something like a moss or lichen carpet typical of boreal regions, I've cut away a small piece here revealing that this is really just a superficial layer (about 1 cm or so) directly over mineral soil. It's not so different from biocrusts of semi-arid regions. Generally, alot of dominant biocrust species tend to have massive multicontinental distributions. This Anthelia also fits this pattern, for example it also forms biocrusts on volcanic soils in Alaska.

The photos below will give you a sense of the habitat. This was from a place called Kaldidalur (translates to cold valley...an appropriate name). These are andosols (andisols in USDA system), a type of soil that forms from volcanic ash. You would not be silly to think highlands areas like this one are bare because they were recently glaciated. Actually, they used to support heath vegetation within the last 1000 years. The reason(s) why they are barren now will be the subject of a future post.

I am on sabbatical. I love that phrase. The absolutely wonderful Fulbright Global Scholar program is making it possible for me to spend about the next 3 months here (disclaimer: any views I express in this blog are mine and do not represent the Fulbright Program or the US Government). This is one of the coolest things the Department of State does. Briefly, they support academic exchanges for professors (and students) to spend time in other nations to foster international collaboration and understanding. I am hosted here by the Agricultural University of Iceland. My hosts are Ása Aradóttir, a plant ecologist and restoration ecologist and Ólafur Arnalds, a soil scientist, who were my guides to learning about these highland crusts. My goals for this portion of my sabbatical are to 1. refine the sampling protocol for CrustNet (a global study we are whipping up...more on this in later posts) and conduct the first sampling, 2. learn as much as I can from this unique environment, 3. keep this blog alive. 

Field Guide to Biocrust of Bandelier National Monument, NM

Here is the newly completed field guide to biocrust lichens and mosses of Bandelier National Monument in northern New Mexico.  We were able to find 23 different lichen and moss species within the Monument. While this is not an exhaustive list of all biocrust lichen and moss species within Bandelier, it is an example of the diversity of biocrust species present and provides the first taxa list for the Monument that can built upon in future work.

The guide is free to all and can be downloaded as a pdf here

Huge thanks to all the people who made this guide possible. Including our survey team Pete Chuckran, Armin Howell, Robin Reibold, Sarah Fischer, Channing Laturno, and Dustin Kebble. In additional to all the support and resources provided by Sasha Reed, Mike Duniway, Jayne Belnap, Kay Beeley, Jeremy Sweat, Craig Allen, Hilda Smith, Erika Geiger, our funding source the Natural Resource Preservation Program (NRPP) of the US Geological Survey, and Bandelier National Monument.

From left to right: Dustin Kebble, Kristina Young, Channing Laturno, Armin Howell, Robin Reibold, and Pete Chuckran

Fire Moss Research Expands to Valles Caldera National Preserve

Last week, with another semester in the books we embarked on our first trip of what looks to be a busy field season. Thanks to additional funding and logistical support provided by Dr. Robert Parmenter at Valles Caldera National Preserve we plan to put Fire Mosses to the test in the Jemez Mountains of northern New Mexico. This fall we will be attempting the first ever inoculation of greenhouse grown Fire Moss onto recently burned soils. To increase our chances of success and meet the preservation objectives of Valles Caldera, we will be growing locally collected moss in our greenhouse here at Northern Arizona University.

Mosses for growing in the Greenhouse

This new project is also a collaboration with Kara Gibson, a fellow graduate student here at NAU who is studying the impacts of thinning and burning forest restoration treatments on soil microbes within the Caldera. To explore the effects of and differences between greenhouse grown moss and field collected moss we will test the effectiveness of both treatments at, stabilizing soils, increasing infiltration, restoring soil microbial communities, restoring nutrient cycling, and facilitating vascular plant recovery in these degraded ecosystems.

We have also expanded a survey of Fire Moss natural colonization and soil stabilization on recent wildfires in northern Arizona to northern New Mexico. This survey will allow us to inform land managers about a missing piece in post fire recovery as well as direct current and future Fire Moss research and Burned Area Emergency Response implementation.

Carpets of Ceratodon purpureus (left) along with a new yet to be identified species. 

Although for this first trip the weather was not interested in cooperating, between the three different snow storms, we had a wonderful time exploring future field sites and sampling within the Las Conchas and Thompson Ridge wildfires. The Jemez Mountains, with their high elevation and vast Valle grasslands, feel like something you would find in Wyoming or Montana instead of the Southwestern US. The opportunity to explore Fire Mosses' potential in such a different climatic and edaphic landscape makes this a perfect addition to our research. Looking forward to many more trips up to such a special part of the world over the next two years!

A big thanks to Dustin Kebble and Kara Gibson for all of their help measuring and collecting moss!

Seeking a Master's student: biocrust biodiversity, does it offer resistance to climate change

Syntrichia caninervis, one of the stars of the new project (image: Jepson Herbarium, UC Berkely)

The School of Forestry, Northern Arizona University, seeks a motivated Master of Science (M.S.F.) student to conduct field and greenhouse experiments in Flagstaff, Arizona and field sites in southeast Utah starting in Fall 2017. The student will be co-advised by Matthew Bowker and Anita Antoninka on a new NSF-funded Dimensions of Biodiversity project in collaboration with 5 institutions (PI- Llo Stark, UNLV). The student will explore the relationship between biodiversity in moss and biocrust communities and their resistance to climate change stressors. The project will: 1. Conduct a greenhouse experiment to first develop “custom” biocrusts with varying levels of community diversity, and genetic diversity within a focal moss taxon (Syntrichia), then monitor the response of the communities to stress. 2. Track trade-offs in stress tolerance and reproduction in Syntrichia biocrusts experimentally transplanted on an elevation gradient. 3. Document the outcomes of long-term simulated climate change as expressed by stress tolerance and reproduction in Syntrichia. At least 2 years of funding are available to the student (Annual stipend of $17,950, tuition remission, and student health coverage) in addition to project costs. 
           
Research Environment: The School of Forestry is one of the top Forestry Schools in the nation, and a productive research environment, with faculty members specializing in a variety of ecological topics such as landscape ecology, ecological restoration, plant ecophysiology, entomology, hydrology, and soil ecology among other topics.


Preferred Qualifications: Bachelor of Science in Forestry, Biology, Environmental Science or related field, supplemented with research experience (undergraduate thesis, capstone or internship, or employment-related experience). Candidates with greenhouse or field research experience will be strongly favored. Candidates with previous experience in soil ecology and/or bryophyte/biocrust ecology will also be favored. The candidate must satisfy all requirements set by the School of Forestry, and Northern Arizona University.


Admissions requirements (Deadline March 15, 2017):

    GPA of 3.0 or greater on a 4.0 scale in all college and university work
    GRE scores in the top 40th percentile
    If English is not your native language:
    a score of at least 80 on the internet-based TOEFL or
    550 on the paper-based TOEFL or
    213 on the computer-based TOEFL
    Three letters of recommendation

How to apply:  First contact us directly (matthew.bowker@nau.edu) to state your research interests, and motivations for attending graduate school, with “moss diversity graduate student inquiry” in the header. Please provide a resume or C.V., and provide your GRE scores (if taken) and GPA. If we agree that you are a good match for the position, we will encourage you to apply to the program.



Useful Links

Dr. Bowker’s web page - http://bowkerlab@blogspot.com

School of Forestry - http://nau.edu/forestry/

SOF M.S. program - http://nau.edu/CEFNS/Forestry/Degrees/MS/

Webinar on biocrust restoration

The Bowker lab recently contributed a feature article to the Society of Ecological Restoration's newsletter on biocrust restoration.  The article can be found here: http://ser.org/resources/sernews/volume-30-issue-3-june-2016/Biocrust

As a complement to the article, members of the Bowker lab will be giving a webinar, sharing progress and plans for restoring biocrusts using the following approach: 1) Develop optimal culturing techniques; 2) Maximize field survivorship; 3) Develop, build and test field delivery mechanisms; and 4) Integrate techniques with current restoration practices.

The webinar will be from Thursday, August 4th, at 4-5pm EDT.  Please join us! http://ser.org/resources/resources-detail-view/upcoming-webinar-biocrusts-in-dryland-restoration

crustCover R Package

The Bowker Lab has developed an R package to characterize and quantify biocrust cover with photo data. This package is called crustCover, and is an adaptation of the methods in Fischer et al. (2012), which describes techniques to use visible light cameras in conjunction with a lens filter to calculate NDVI. This package is a work in progress, and input from the biocrust community on bugs encountered or ideas for improvements would be greatly appreciated. Please send reports or request for improvements to kd498@nau.edu.