Read OutwardThe living web that holds desert soil together
Sticky material left by cyanobacteria binds loose ground, stores water and supports plants. A footprint can break that web—and its return has several different clocks.
Life that looks like bare earth
Bumpy, black soil gives a desert crust a visible presence. Its younger counterpart is easier to overlook: flat, brown ground that looks like bare earth. Both appearances belong to biological soil crust, a community of living organisms that binds soil into a continuous surface. The difference matters because a patch need not look conspicuously alive to be part of that community. In the Colorado Plateau’s high desert, which extends across parts of Utah, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico, cyanobacteria dominate …
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