Biological soil crusts (BSCs) are common and well known in many semiarid environments in the southwestern United States and evidence is accumulating regarding their contributions to critical ecosystem services. Occurrence and importance of these unique communities of organisms in colder and higher elevation semiarid environments in the western U.S. is much less well known. Preliminary surveys of the occurrence of BSCs have been conducted in semiarid Wyoming rangelands in MLRA 32 and 34A, but a comprehensive survey of BSC occurrence and distribution on Wyoming rangelands is missing from the literature. The objective of this project is to carry out a detailed survey of the occurrence of BSCs in Wyoming rangelands using grazed and ungrazed sites represented by BLM grazing exclosures. Surveys are being conducted on Wyoming BLM lands in the Big Horn Basin, Sweetwater Basin, Upper and Lower Green River Basins, Wind River Basin and parts of the Powder River Basin. This project will produce a species list, distribution maps and responses of BSCs to surrounding biota of Wyoming BSCs for land managers to use in future management practices considering benefits BSCs provide to rangeland ecosystems.
Oral presentation and poster titles, abstracts, and authors from the Society for Range Management (SRM) Annual Meetings and Tradeshows, from 2013 forward.