The Atacama Desert is the driest non‐polar desert on Earth, presenting precarious conditions for biological activity. In the arid coastal belt, life is restricted to areas with fog events that cause almost daily wet–dry cycles. In such an area, we discovered a hitherto unknown and unique ground covering biocenosis dominated by lichens, fungi, and algae attached to grit‐sized (~6 mm) quartz and granitoid stones. Comparable biocenosis forming a kind of a layer on top of soil and rock surfaces in general is summarized as cryptogamic ground covers (CGC) in literature. In contrast to known CGC from arid environments to which frequent cyclic wetting events are lethal, in the Atacama Desert every fog event is answered by photosynthetic activity of the soil community and thus considered as the desert's breath. Photosynthesis of the new CGC type is activated by the lowest amount of water known for such a community worldwide thus enabling the unique biocenosis to fulfill a variety of ecosystem services. In a considerable portion of the coastal Atacama Desert, it protects the soil from sporadically occurring splash erosion and contributes to the accumulation of soil carbon and nitrogen as well as soil formation through bio‐weathering. The structure and function of the new CGC type are discussed, and we suggest the name grit–crust. We conclude that this type of CGC can be expected in all non‐polar fog deserts of the world and may resemble the cryptogam communities that shaped ancient Earth. It may thus represent a relevant player in current and ancient biogeochemical cycling.

中文翻译：

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沙漠呼吸-雾如何促进新型的土壤生物污染，形成沿海阿塔卡马沙漠的活体皮肤。

阿塔卡马沙漠是地球上最干燥的非极性沙漠，为生物活动提供了不稳定的条件。在干旱的沿海地带，生活仅限于有雾的地区，这些地区几乎每天都会引起干湿循环。在这样的地区，我们发现了迄今为止未知的独特地表生物覆盖，覆盖了地衣，真菌和藻类，并附着在粗砂（〜6毫米）石英和花岗岩上。通常，在土壤和岩石表面上形成一种层的可比生物群落学被概括为文献中的隐地地面覆盖物（CGC）。与干旱环境中频繁循环润湿事件具有致命性的已知CGC相比，在阿塔卡马沙漠中，每一次雾霾事件都是通过土壤群落的光合作用活动来响应的，因此被视为沙漠的呼吸。新的CGC类型的光合作用被全世界此类社区所知的最低水量激活，从而使独特的生物群落能够实现各种生态系统服务。在沿海阿塔卡马沙漠的相当一部分地区，它可以保护土壤免遭偶发的飞溅侵蚀，并通过生物风化作用促进土壤碳，氮的积累以及土壤的形成。讨论了新CGC类型的结构和功能，我们建议使用该名称 它可以保护土壤免于偶尔发生的飞溅侵蚀，并通过生物风化作用促进土壤碳，氮的积累以及土壤的形成。讨论了新CGC类型的结构和功能，我们建议使用该名称 它可以保护土壤免于偶尔发生的飞溅侵蚀，并通过生物风化作用促进土壤碳，氮的积累以及土壤的形成。讨论了新CGC类型的结构和功能，我们建议使用该名称硬壳。我们得出的结论是，这种CGC可能在世界上所有非极性雾漠中都可以预料到，并且可能类似于塑造古代地球的隐秘族。因此，它可以代表当前和古代生物地球化学循环中的重要角色。