The carbon cycle in salt pans is complex and poorly understood. Field-based data are needed to improve regional estimates of C storage and land–atmosphere CO2 fluxes from dryland environments where pans are prevalent. This paper provides a first estimate of C stores and CO2 efflux within the salt pan, grassland and woodland …
The Kalahari of southern Africa is characterised by sparse vegetation interspersed with biological soil crusts which deliver a range of ecosystem services including soil stabilisation and carbon fixation. The crusts vary in morphology from barely aggregated sand grains, to strongly aggregated thick crusts with dark pigmentation. Crust morphology and development …
Soil pore and particle matrices both facilitate and constrain soil-atmosphere exchange of heat, moisture and gas. Further, in soils covered by Biological Soil Crusts (BSCs), soil structure differs in the BSC (<1cm) and near surface layers. Soil-atmosphere gas exchange occurs primarily by diffusion, moisture flow by capillarity and hydrostatic pressure, …