Episode Synopsis "Biocrusts – “The Living Skin of the Desert” – Thrive in Our Region’s Harshest Places"

Gypsum landscapes occur globally, but they abound in the Chihuahuan Desert, from Coahuila and Durango to the Guadalupe Mountains in Texas and New Mexico’s White Sands. These white-sand outcrops are certainly harsh. But they’re also hotspots of biodiversity. That includes the complex, fragile ecosystems known as “biocrusts.”

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More episodes of the podcast Nature Notes

• Mammoth Find: A Tusk Discovery Points to Big Bend’s Rich Ice Age Past
• Listening to the Desert’s “Werewolf Mouse” Reveals the Complex World of Bioacoustics
• Patty Manning Pollinator Garden to Honor a Passionate Advocate of Big Bend Flora
• Riparian Raptors: For Birds of Prey, Cottonwood Forests are Essential Islands in a Desert Sea
• On the West Texas Prairie, the Plainview Site Points to an Enigmatic Ice Age Culture
• The “Wooly Devil” is a Tiny, Wondrous Discovery in Big Bend National Park
• Stories in the Soil: Exploring the “Geoarcheology” of the West Texas Plains
• Mississippi Kites: New Raptors to West Texas Embody Wild Tenacity
• With its Evolutionary Magic, the Grasshopper Mouse Could Revolutionize Medicine
• Through a Fraught History, Golden Eagles Endure in West Texas
• Hognose History: Cracking the Code of a Star Snake in West Texas
• Scientist Explore an Enigmatic Lizard in the Chinati Mountains
• Biocrusts – “The Living Skin of the Desert” – Thrive in Our Region’s Harshest Places
• West Texas “Nabkha” Dunes Reveal a Rugged Region’s Fragility
• Megastar Médanos: Exploring Chihuahua’s Samalayuca Dunes
• Independence Creek Preserve: A West Texas Oasis is the Nation’s Newest Natural Landmark
• Clues in the collection: museum artifacts reveal the secrets of prehistoric hunters
• From rocky redoubts, chirping frogs announce the desert’s hidden life
• The desert distilled: the science of sand dunes
• Archeologists unearth unexpected wonders in a cave near Marfa