Polar Week Fall 2016 Figure Competition

Conceptual framework for understanding the role of biological soil crusts (biocrusts) in the West Greenland landscape. Starting in a high productivity stable state (shrub and graminoid tundra), wind disturbance can remove soil and vegetation, exposing loess and glacial till. After biocrust development, the role of the biocrust either as a permanent landscape cover or a successional facilitator determines whether the landscape remains in a low productivity stable state or returns to the initial high productivity state. Concept from Bowker et al., 2007.