Multi-scale Studies of Microbial Mats and Biocrusts: Integrating Remote Sensing with Field Investigations in Antarctica's McMurdo Dry Valleys

• Main Author: Power, Sarah Nicole
• Other Authors: Biological Sciences, Barrett, John E., Thomas, Valerie Anne, Salvatore, Mark, Hotchkiss, Erin R., Carey, Cayelan C.
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Virginia Tech 2024
• Subjects: biocrust; carbon; desert; ecosystem; microbial mat; nitrogen; remote sensing; soil; McMurdo Dry Valleys; Taylor Valley; Antarc*; Antarctica; Tundra
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10919/121090

Primary productivity is a fundamental ecosystem process driven by vascular plants in most terrestrial ecosystems and by microbes in more extreme ecosystems. In dense associations, microbial organisms can form visually conspicuous layers on sediment, soil, and rock surfaces, called microbial mats and...