Here we report details of the European research initiative "Soil Crust International" (SCIN) focusing on the biodiversity of biological soil crusts (BSC, composed of bacteria, algae, lichens, and bryophytes) and on functional aspects in their specific environment. Known as the so-called "colored soil lichen community" (Bunte Erdflechtengesellschaft), these BSCs occur all over Europe, extending into subtropical and arid regions. Our goal is to study the uniqueness of these BSCs on the regional scale and investigate how this community can cope with large macroclimatic differences. One of the major aims of this project is to develop biodiversity conservation and sustainable management strategies for European BSCs. To achieve this, we established a latitudinal transect from the Great Alvar of Öland, Sweden in the north over Gössenheim, Central Germany and Hochtor in the Hohe Tauern National Park, Austria down to the badlands of Tabernas, Spain in the south. The transect stretches over 20° latitude and 2,300 m in altitude, including natural (Hochtor, Tabernas) and semi-natural sites that require maintenance such as by grazing activities (Öland, Gössenheim). At all four sites BSC coverage exceeded 30 % of the referring landscape, with the alpine site (Hochtor) reaching the highest cyanobacterial cover and the two semi-natural sites (Öland, Gössenheim) the highest bryophyte cover. Although BSCs of the four European sites share a common set of bacteria, algae (including cyanobacteria) lichens and bryophytes, first results indicate not only climate specific additions of species, but also genetic/phenotypic uniqueness of species between the four sites. While macroclimatic conditions are rather different, microclimatic conditions and partly soil properties seem fairly homogeneous between the four sites, with the exception of water availability. Continuous activity monitoring of photosystem II revealed the BSCs of the Spanish site as the least active in terms of photosynthetic active periods.

中文翻译：

---

提高对欧洲生物土壤结皮功能和重要性的认识：国际土壤结皮项目 (SCIN)。

在这里，我们报告了欧洲研究计划“国际土壤结皮”（SCIN）的详细信息，该计划侧重于生物土壤结皮（BSC，由细菌、藻类、地衣和苔藓植物组成）的生物多样性及其特定环境中的功能方面。这些BSC被称为所谓的“有色土壤地衣群落”（Bunte Erdflechtengesellschaft），遍布欧洲，延伸到亚热带和干旱地区。我们的目标是在区域范围内研究这些 BSC 的独特性，并研究该社区如何应对巨大的宏观气候差异。该项目的主要目标之一是为欧洲 BSC 制定生物多样性保护和可持续管理战略。为了实现这一点，我们从厄兰大阿尔瓦建立了一个纬度横断面，瑞典北部经过德国中部的格森海姆和奥地利高陶恩国家公园的霍赫托，南部到西班牙塔贝纳斯的荒地。横断面横跨 20° 纬度和 2,300 m 海拔，包括需要维护的自然（Hochtor、Tabernas）和半自然场地（如放牧活动）（Öland、Gössenheim）。在所有四个地点，BSC 覆盖率都超过了参考景观的 30%，其中高山地点 (Hochtor) 的蓝藻覆盖率最高，两个半自然地点（厄兰、格森海姆）的苔藓植物覆盖率最高。尽管四个欧洲站点的 BSC 共享一组共同的细菌、藻类（包括蓝藻）地衣和苔藓植物，但初步结果表明不仅气候特定的物种增加，还有四个地点之间物种的遗传/表型独特性。虽然宏观气候条件相当不同，但四个地点之间的小气候条件和部分土壤性质似乎相当均匀，但水的可用性除外。光系统 II 的连续活动监测显示西班牙站点的 BSC 在光合作用活跃期方面是最不活跃的。