RECOVERY RATES OF CRYPTOBIOTIC CRUSTS - INOCULANT USE AND ASSESSMENT METHODS

Recovery rates of cyanobacterial-lichen soil crusts from disturbance w ere examined. Plots were either undisturbed or scalped, and scalped pl ots were either inoculated with surrounding biological crust material or left to recover naturally. Natural recovery rates were found to be very slow. Inoculation significantly hastened recovery for the cynobac terial/green algal component, lichen cover, lichen species richness, a nd moss cover. Even with inoculation, however, lichen and moss recover y was minimal. Traditional techniques of assessing recovery visually w ere found to underestimate time for total recovery. Other techniques, such as extraction of chlorophyll a from surface soil and measurement of sheath material accumulation, were used and are discussed.