permaculture

[Darren <darren@eepo.com.au>]

Victor Guest wrote:
> 
> 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.

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.

> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> 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