Experimental evidence of a biological soil crust degradation climate warming amplification feedback
William K. Smith, Miguel L. Villarreal, Cara Lauria, Willliam A. Rutherford, Stefanie Herrmann, Victoria Scholl, Armin Howell, Mostafa Javadian, Fujiang Ji, Fangyue Zhang, Matthew A. Burgess, Raymond Kokaly, Benjamin Poulter, Sasha C. Reed · 2026
Read Experimental evidence of a biological soil crust degradation climate warming amplification feedback by William K. Smith, Miguel L. Villarreal, Cara Lauria, Willliam A. Rutherford, Stefanie Herrmann, Victoria Scholl, Armin Howell, Mostafa Javadian, Fujiang Ji, Fangyue Zhang, Matthew A. Burgess, Raymond Kokaly, Benjamin Poulter, Sasha C. Reed (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13593566.txt.
Description
Smith and co-authors test how soil crusts shift when the air warms and rain turns. Crusts are thin mats of small green growths, lichens, and mosses on bare soil. They cover near 12 percent of land, yet their climate role is still unclear. The team joins remote scans with a long field test that warms plots for two decades. Warmth and changed monsoon rain cut late-stage moss cover by near 27 percent. Pale early-stage growth rose by near 36 percent in its place.
The shift cut light use by near 6.3 percent and raised ground glare. Ground wetness fell, and day heat rose a small amount. The authors call this a loop: warmth wears crusts down, and worn crusts then add more warmth. They note that climate models now miss this loop.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | William K. Smith, Miguel L. Villarreal, Cara Lauria, Willliam A. Rutherford, Stefanie Herrmann, Victoria Scholl, Armin Howell, Mostafa Javadian, Fujiang Ji, Fangyue Zhang, Matthew A. Burgess, Raymond Kokaly, Benjamin Poulter, Sasha C. Reed |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 63 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |