The disappearance of “biocrusts” in the world’s deserts may help slow climate change — though not without consequences, says a 10-year study in the journal Scientific Reports.
Biocrusts are the “tangled masses of mosses, lichens and cyanobacteria” that emerge from the desert floor in places like the Sonoran desert in the American southwest and the Colorado plateau. They often occur where plants struggle to survive, says High Country News.
In some areas, ATVs, development and livestock grazing have already destroyed these natural formations. But where they remain “they behave a bit like a dark shirt in the hot sun, absorbing sunlight and heating up the desert that they cover,” says HCN.
The study’s authors warn that the moss and lichens that make biocrusts dark in color might not make it through the next century, however, as climate change alters precipitation patterns. In theory, that could mean that biocrusts won’t radiate so much heat and thus slow the effects of climate change. But the researchers warn that biocrusts also protect against soil erosion. If dust from the desert floor is whipped up by winds only to land on mountain ice sheets, which themselves reflect heat, any anti-climate-change effects might be canceled out.