The pinnacled biological soil crusts in the Snow Canyon State Park area.

Biological Soil Crusts

For the Geo-curious:  Biological Soil Crusts Rule!
On a recent hike to White Rock Peak, on the opposite side of Snow Canyon's deep chasm, I found a highly developed patch of cryptobiotic soil, AKA biological soil crust which means "soil particles bound together by organic material."   The dark spires and pinnacles of the built-up soil in the photo above which looks like a mini mountain range are made of cyanobacteria, fungi, algae, lichens, and bryophytes.  They are more sophisticated than they look and provide important ecological functions for their immediate environment:

• the cyanobacteria and cyanolichens fixate nitrogen from the atmosphere to make it available to vascular plants.
• ​they are photosynthetic, so they contribute carbon to the underlying soils.
• protect the soil from the erosive forces of wind and water.

The morphology (form) of the biological soil crusts in the Red Mountain Wilderness are "pinnacled" crusts which have up to 40% lichen/moss cover and can be up to 15 cm high.  These occur in cold deserts where the soil undergoes frost-heaving.
Some cool facts about biological soil crusts (BSC):

• Organisms on BSC's are unrelated but share some traits:  they can dry out and temporarily suspend respiration and not die, unlike vascular plants that would either die or grow new tissue.
• The dominant components on Colorado Plateau BSC are cyanobacteria and lichens.
• The pinnacles are formed by winter freezing which heaves the soil upward.

References
A Field Guide to Biological Soil Crusts of Western U.S. Drylands.  Bureau of Land Management.

​Warren, S.D.  2014.  Role of Biological Soil Crusts in Desert Hydrology and geomorphology:  Implications for Military Training Operations.

Biological Soil Crusts:  Ecology and Management.  2001.  U.S. Department of the Interior.