(Poster) Biological Soil Crusts: Microbial Prospects for Terraforming?

Biological soil crusts (BSCs) are cooperative communities of microbes withiin desert soil that include fungi, bacteria, photosynthetic algae, and nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria that function together as “ecosystem pioneers” in low-water, extreme temperature environments, able to transform otherwise lifeless terrain into microhabitats that can support higher life forms. My lab is working to understand how BSC microbes interact—metabolically and physically—to impact carbon and nitrogen cycling within the larger ecosystem. Specifically, we are studying how microbes in dessicated crusts that exist primarily in a low-metabolic dormant state become rapidly reanimated upon the addition of water. I will give a basic overview of BSC science and the collaborative research we are pursuing to understand the microbial community structure of BSCs and the emergent ecosystem functions of crusts. I will also present our proposal that BSCs are a promising system to explore and test ideas of using microbes to terraform lifeless substrates.