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Should biological soil crusts be removed before artificial rainfall simulation?

I'm setting up rainfall simulation experiments to study runoff generation in semi-arid ecosystems. The natural soil surface has a well-developed biological crust (moss, lichen, cyanobacteria). My objective is to understand integrated plot-scale hydrology. Should I simulate rainfall on the intact surface to capture the real system, or remove the crust to isolate the response of the mineral soil beneath?

 

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By Atilia Answered 1 year ago

This is a fundamental design choice I've grappled with in my own field studies. I would strongly recommend you leave the biocrust intact. Your goal is to understand plot-scale hydrology, and that crust is a dominant control. Removing it essentially studies a non-existent system. Intact crusts, especially well-developed moss-lichen ones, typically enhance infiltration and stability, while disturbed cyanobacterial crusts can form a physical seal. Your simulation results will be ecologically meaningless if you strip the crust. Instead, document its type, coverage, and roughness as key covariates in your analysis. The "noise" it introduces is actually the signal you need.

 

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