This dataset contains environmental and microbial diversity data
relating to biological soil crusts collected at four locations in
the Chihuahuan Desert. This study aims to 1) assess the carbon
fixation capacity of biocrust types under varying incubation times;
2) assess biocrust nitrogen fixation capacity; 3) understand
microbial community composition as well as biomass differences
within these biocrust types; and 4) identify how geographic location
and soil properties can explain differences seen in carbon fixation
and microbial diversity. In order to characterize the ecology and
microbial diversity of biocrust types at a range of Chihuahuan
Desert sites, vegetation and soil data was collected along with soil
crust samples at 4 sites in southern New Mexico, USA: the Jornada
Experimental Range (near T-West), the A-Mountain BLM site, the
Volcanic BLM site, and White Sands Missile Range. Data and sample
collection occurred between May and July of 2020, and the soil crust
types of interest were light cyanobacterial, dark cyanobacterial,
Peltula lichen, Clavascidium lichen, and moss crusts (n=5 samples
for each type). After collection, crust samples were sequenced,
targeting the 16S rRNA gene region for bacteria. This dataset
includes the environmental context data, including vegetation cover
(measured by the line-point intercept method) and soil chemistry
data, as well as mean relative abundance for cyanobacterial species
and phospholipid fatty acid analyses (PLFA) of crust samples for the
purpose of comparing microbial biomass, biodiversity and functional
type differences between different biocrust types at the four sites.
Soil metagenomic data is hosted at the NCBI Sequence Read Archive,
and links to those data are provided in an inventory file. This
study is complete.
