permaculture

[Victor Guest <vic@daena.eepo.com.au>]

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" <chrm-general@igc.apc.org>
From: Sam Bingham <sbingham@igc.apc.org>

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: d.mitchell@wlv.ac.uk

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