The hidden network of biocrust successional stages in the High Arctic: Revealing abiotic and biotic factors shaping microbial and metazoan communities

Despite the important role that biocrust communities play in maintaining ecosystem structure and functioning in deglaciated barren soil, few studies have been conducted on the dynamics of biotic communities and the impact of physicochemical characteristics in shaping the different successional stages. In this study an integrated approach encompassing physicochemical parameters and molecular taxonomy was used for identifying the indicator taxa and the presence of intra- and inter-kingdom interactions in five different crust/biocrust successional stages: i) physical crust, ii) cyanobacteria-dominated biocrust, iii) cyanobacteria/ moss-dominated biocrust, iv) moss-dominated biocrust and v) bryophyte carpet.