What is a biocrust? A refined, contemporary definition for a broadening research community

Studies of biological soil crusts (biocrusts) have proliferated over the last few decades. The biocrust literature has broadened, with more studies assessing and describing the function of a variety of biocrust communities in a broad range of biomes and habitats and across a large spectrum of disciplines, and also by the incorporation of biocrusts into global perspectives and biogeochemical models. As the number of biocrust researchers increases, along with the scope of soil communities defined as 'biocrust', it is worth asking whether we all share a clear, universal, and fully articulated definition of what constitutes a biocrust. In this review, we synthesize the literature with the views of new and…

• FE
  Federación Española de Enfermedades Raras

  Award: REBIOARID (2018‐101921‐B‐I00)
• CN
  Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología
• GV
  Generalitat Valenciana

  Award: CIDEGENT/2018/041
• CN
  Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología, Paraguay

  Award: SEP‐CB‐2015‐01‐251388
• UG
  U.S. Geological Survey
• NS
  National Science Foundation of Sri Lanka

  Awards: 1557162 & 1557135, DEB‐1844531
• HE
  H2020 European Research Council