Subject: Re: cryptogamic soils (fwd)

From: Victor Guest <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 25 Oct 1997 19:02:13 WST

I'm unsure whether anyone on this list can use this info because cryptogamic
soils don't mean anything to me. I might know them under another name.
Vic
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Reply-To: Conference "chrm.general" <[email-masked]>
From: Sam Bingham <[email-masked]>

Cryptogamic soil!!  The everlasting political question.  HM says they need
to be broken for succession to advance.  The anti-livestock people says 
they fix nitrogen and protect soil.  I think we have good practical evidence
that they need to be broken.  If you want a scientific argument why this is
so and how the nitrogen and other good products of the cyptogamic process are
unavailable to other organisms, including grass, unless the crust is broken
contact  Dr. David Mitchell, University of Wolverhampton / Wolverhampton 
West Midlands WUI ISB, UK  email: [email-masked]

He did a lot of work on this in western China around the edges of the Gobi
desert.
Good luck
Sam Bingham

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From: Darren <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 27 Oct 1997 11:03:48 +0800

> soils don't mean anything to me. I might know them under another name.

Maybe cryptobiotic.  The "official" line is expressed by the US National
Park Service at http://www.nps.gov/care/crypto.htm from whence this
extract comes:

  We refer to cryptogamic soil crust - "brown sugar soil" - that dark
  cruddy stuff which covers much of the terrain of untrampled desert
  areas.

  Cryptogamic soil is actually alive, composed of several species of
  mosses, lichens, fungi and algae. It protects the soil from erosion,
  absorbs moisture, and provides nitrogen and other nutrients for plant
  growth.

---

From: Victor Guest <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 28 Oct 1997 06:54:53 WST

>From: Darren <[email-masked]>
>To: Permaculture WA <[email-masked]>
>
>Victor Guest wrote:
>> 

Can you think of an example of these soils in WA. Are they found around 
rock catchment areas in the eastern wheat belt.

>  absorbs moisture, and provides nitrogen and other nutrients for plant

Regards,
          Vic
--
Victor Guest   V.G.Guest                       Perth, Western Australia
[email-masked]                  11 Carew Place Greenwood 6024 
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