Rapid recovery of cyanobacterial pigments in desiccated biological soil crusts following addition of water
- Abed, R M M
- Polerecky, Lubos
- Al-Habsi, Amal
- Oetjen, Janina
- Strous, Marc
- de Beer, Dirk
DOIAbstract
We examined soil surface colour change to green and hydrotaxis following addition of water to biological soil crusts using pigment extraction, hyperspectral imaging, microsensors and 13C labeling experiments coupled to matrix-assisted laser desorption and ionization time of flight-mass spectrometry (MALD-TOF MS). The topsoil colour turned green in less than 5 minutes following water addition. The concentrations of chlorophyll a (Chl a), scytonemin and echinenon rapidly increased in the top <1 mm layer while in the deeper layer, their concentrations remained low. Hyperspectral imaging showed that, in both wet and dehydrated crusts, cyanobacteria formed a layer at a depth of 0.2–0.4 mm and this layer did not move upward after wetting. 13C lab...
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