desert ecology
Desert Lichen Microforests
Deserts and northern latitude terrains seem to be where most of the world’s lichens live. During my visits to the arid Sonoran desert, desert lichens have my attention. I’ve always loved deserts. Mystery and history sum it up. Desert land is the bones of the earth exposed; rock in endless arrangements and forms that are invisible in vegetation covered lands tell of how the earth has moved and moved, and moved again. Earth rises, sinks, slowly flows from one place to another, melting and cooling in an endless cycle. In this part of the Sonoran desert, the geology in some mountain areas is very complex because of all the different processes and movements over time. Geologists call one mountain range here the ‘Tucson Mountains Mess’, and it is a mess. All sorts of rocks are mixed together in improbable layers and configurations. I often stand in one spot and pick up 15-20 different types of rock without moving a step.
All these rocks were made in a different place, in a different way and at a different time from each other, but they all ended up on the top of the ground in the same place. Some geological processes are still not well understood, and one of the mysteries is how some rocks got in between other layers or areas of rocks that have nothing to do with each other.
The first book about deserts that influenced me was In_the_Deserts_of_This_Earth by Uwe George, a German naturalist. He described stones in the desert covered with what is called ‘desert varnish’, a thin layer of red or black that is from metallic oxides migrating to the surface of rocks.
It was long believed that weathering caused the varnish to form. Israeli scientists were studying the chemical composition of desert stones with desert varnish on them, when they accidentally found that the stones gave off carbon dioxide at night, when covered with dew, and reversed the process in the day, taking in carbon dioxide and giving off oxygen. The process stopped when the sun dried the dew. The rocks were photosynthesizing. Under magnification, the stones were found to be covered with many forms of life; algae, bacteria, fungi and of course our little friends the lichens. It was a microforest, invisible to the eye. While photosynthesizing, these life forms were removing minerals from the dust in the air, fixing them to the surface of the rock and changing the surface of the desert.
Wolfgang Wunderlich, a German geologist, studied these microflora in the Negev desert in Israel and found that the various species of bacteria and lichens were responsible for transforming the metallic oxides from the air and in the rock to the surface of the rock, and so were instrumental in creating the ‘varnish’, as well as photosynthesizing, which changed the chemical structure and composition of the rocks and the surface of the desert. A more complete explanation of how lichens and bacteria make desert varnish can be found in papers from https://www2.palomar.edu/ university published papers.
An excerpt from: https://www2.palomar.edu/users/warmstrong/pljan98.htm#Introduction describes the process of making desert varnish:
“One of the most remarkable biogeochemical phenomena in arid desert regions of the world is desert varnish. Although it may be only a hundredth of a millimeter in thickness, desert varnish often colors entire desert mountain ranges black or reddish brown.
Several genera of bacteria are known to produce desert varnish, including Metallogenium and Pedomicrobium. They consist of minute spherical, rod- shaped or pear-shaped cells only 0.4 to 2 micrometers long, with peculiar cellular extensions. In fact, the individual cells are smaller than human red blood cells which are about 7.5 micrometers in diameter. Because of the radiating filaments from individual cells and colonies, they are called appendaged bacteria. All living systems require the vital energy molecule ATP (adenosine triphosphate) in order to function. In our cells ATP is constantly produced within minute bodies called mitochondria. As electrons flow along the membranes of our mitochondria, molecules of ATP are generated. The electrons come from the breakdown (oxidation) of glucose from our diet. Although varnish bacteria do not have mitochondria, they do have a similar inner membrane structure through which electrons flow to generate ATP. However, in varnish bacteria the electrons come from the oxidation of manganese and iron rather than glucose. Herein lies the marvelous adaptive advantage for producing a layer of black and red varnish on desert boulders.”
In an earlier post, there is an image of lichen buried inside rock. They are only millimeters below the surface but that is enough for them to do their work of changing the rock and bringing nutrients to the surface that are the basis for the development of all other plants.
Weather does play a part in bringing the metallic substances to the rock surface, but lichens and their companions do a lot of the work when they are present. Lichens, in a healthy landscape, cover about 8% of the land surface, so they instigate a significant amount of the chemical interactions on earth. Other than changing the rock itself, lichens fix up to 20% of the nitrogen in the soil.
What looks inconsequential to us as we walk across the ground, whether in the forest or in the desert, is actually a delicate and intricate web of life that literally keeps the earth from blowing away and creates the nutrient chain that supports the whole Web of Life. If it sounds crunchy or you feel little things breaking underfoot, you are walking on a living, working part of the environment that is unnoticed but essential. Please stay on the trail and protect the biofilm. The life crunched underfoot will take decades to regrow.
If you carry a hand lens, you can stop once in a while (a very good idea anyway), get down on your hands and knees and look around through the lens. Besides being able to see the lichens in detail, you might find other mysteries and wonders.
That’s just a few of the surprises found on a trail through that barren looking stretch of gravel. Wherever you are, stop and look down once in a while, get close, and then use the magic key of the hand lens to enter the miniature forests underfoot. There’s always more going on than noticed at first glance.
Please remember, when you are exploring to stay on the trail. Learning to walk on the living layer of biocrust without killing it is a skill that takes time and attention. Here’s a friendly challenge: spend one season of hiking observing everything possible from the vantage point of standing on the trail. Closer observation leads to realizing you will never see everything that is there! No need to wander off trail to find something new.
Thank you for wandering in Lichen Land with me. Please share and like this blog to help lichens become a familiar and valued part of how we understand our Life Support System.
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Lunch with Desert Lichens-Notes
I am sitting on a carefully checked rock (cactus spines? rattlesnake?), munching on lunch and letting my eyes focus on the rocks that make up most of the surface of the earth here in this dry arroyo. Two friends and I are spending the day meandering with the water way, smelling and watching and feeling our way into a tiny part of this lush land.
When we pass through this desert in a car, we notice nothing. When we hike a trail at our usual rapid and noisy pace, we notice some of the larger, most unusual residents such as the iconic Saguaro cactus that everyone recognizes. If you are very lucky and observant you may see a roadrunner scoot between the cactuses. But there is more here, more than you can imagine.
I love lichens for many reasons, and so will begin telling of desert wonders by introducing you to a very few of the lichen residents. For they are one of the foundations of all life in the desert.
This blue green foliose lives near the floor of the arroyo, so when water moves through from the summer storms it probably gets very wet. Otherwise life is either very hot and dry or quite cold on this rock. These lichens hold moisture, provide food and shelter and add nitrogen to the land, and moderate surface temperatures, just as they do in the greener hills of the Midwest. They help form the biofilm crust that makes a healthy desert ground surface.
Hidden in the lichens and small plants that grow in rock niches are insects, essential for bird and reptile residents. Hawks, owls and small mammals eat the birds and lizards, and they support the coyote, fox and larger animals. All these animals fertilize the land and leave bones, fur and other inedible parts of their meals to return to the soil, replacing nutrients, and so each resident provides something essential for others in a close web of cooperation.
This moss glows with silver light; it drew our attention from quite a distance away. Around the edges were small crustose lichens. (My photo of them was blurry so we can’t see them, sorry. Cell phone cameras are useful but have big limitations that I am not able to overcome.) Since moss prefers less harsh sunlight and more moisture than many lichens, especially the crustose lichens, there are fewer mosses in the desert. This moss is dry now, but turns more green when watered. Often lichens that are dark colored or black have cyanobacteria that give them the dark color. What causes the moss’s dark color? This is the largest patch of moss I have seen so far. Usually there are only small areas of moss in somewhat shady areas. This moss gets a lot of sunshine.
As we munch through our lunch, we notice many birds flying back and forth across the arroyo. There is much twittering in the bushes. The more we look the more birds we see. We are sitting very close to a tiny water hole, and that is why the birds are gathered here.
This tiny puddle and the damp ground around it supports a great many birds, animals, insects and plants. The water is from a rain two days before; there is probably less than a gallon of water here now. Soon this water will be gone but for now it draws dozens of birds and other residents. We see verdin, rock wrens, black phoebe, gila woodpecker, warblers and more. Ants trail across the sand, bees by the hundreds drink from the damp places, butterflies too. Most need some of the water, but it is also a place where many find a meal.
How many species of lichen can you find in the photo above? There are quite a few! This picture shows an area of about 6 inches of rock. Each lichen has a different chemical composition, and may have a different bacteria partner.
The Sonoran desert has over 2,000 species of plants, and over 1,000 species of bees. One hundred species of reptiles here live nowhere else in the world. This bare and harsh looking land is a rich and complex world. Fragile to some stresses, yet resilient and flexible in many ways, the plants and animals of the desert share the lichen’s long adaptation to not only a very hot land, but a home that also is very cold, very dry and very wet at different times.
Below is a desert fern; its leaves are hard, built to resist losing moisture.
The fern is living in a bed of moss, and within the moss are tiny lichen. Lichen surround the moss, in the cracks of the rock. Eventually the moss and fern will go and larger plants take root.
Each time I see a different resident of the desert, I think about what relationships that resident has with any other being nearby. Some relationships are between residents and those who are only here a short time, such as that of the Ocotillo and hummingbirds. Ocotillo blooms in the spring when the hummingbirds that are migrating pass through the area. Nectar from the flowers may be the only food these long distance flyers have. Ocotillo blooms do not depend on rainfall as many other plants’ blooming time does. What conversations have been going on between hummingbirds and ocotillo, for time beyond human understanding, to develop this delicate dance that both support and both benefit from? This is the ever-present story of the desert, and every place on earth, but in the desert there are few or no backup options if one partner fails to participate. Over and over, each animal, plant, insect, fungi and lichen here have a similar story of mutual responsibility and benefit.
A beautiful rock in Sabino Canyon, that tells a complex story about what went on here over a very long time. But hidden in the cracks and shadows is another story; that of the life that begins with tiny spores, isidea and soridea of lichens. Move close, get out your hand lens and look at the rock. There, almost invisible, are the beginnings of a lichen forest. Many years from now the rock may present a different color, then even later, the shapes of crustose lichens will appear fully grown and visible. Insects and birds and lizards and mammals will benefit in many ways, and life will continue in the desert canyon.
Lunch is over, but our walk is not, so my friends and I will leave you, to wander farther up the arroyo. Thanks for joining us!
(Answer to ‘How many lichen species in this picture?’ = I count six! Do you see more?)
Disclaimer: All identifications are tentative. Lichens are very hard to identify, I am not an expert, and my focus is relationships, beauty, and the whole of life around the lichens. If you know what a lichen’s name is, please let me know.
Remember to Look for Lichens!
KVR Lichens 