During my recent excursion to Arches National Park in southeast Utah last month I was educated on how fragile this environment really is. Many think that they can just walk across the sandy floor of the Park and they will not harm a thing. However, this area of the American Southwest is quite fragile. In fact, traveling through many of the areas of the Park are restricted to hiking on established trails and staying on the slickrock and washes: the Park is indeed a minimalist landscape. In some places, the ground around and between widely spaced plants appears to have large patches of dark, knobby, brittle crust. This same scruffy, apparently dead and dried out rind covers almost 75 percent of the ground surface of the 130,000 square mile Colorado Plateau. It is called biological, or cryptobiotic, soil crust. This important component to the survival and longevity of this region is very much alive and of great ecological importance. This particular soil crust, sometimes called crypto for short, is made up of cyanobacteria,mosses, soil lichens, green algae, microfungi and bacteria.So, what does this soil crust do that is so important. In harsh desert enviroments, such as the Colorado Plateau, the ecology can used all the help it can get! This assistance comes in many forms: creating an erosion-resistant surface, capturing nitrogen from the air and converting it into a form that plants can use, and making calcium, potassium, and manganese available to plants as well. The soilcrust is also able to expand to ten times ist dry size, making moisture retention a possibility.
This soil crust, however, is easily broken, especially when dry. If it is tramped on, whether it is from foot traffic, bike and vehicle tracks, or various natural occurences, this fragile enviornment becomes susceptible to wind and water erosion. Unstable sandy soils can turn a nearby solidly anchored, crypto-covered "garden" into a drifting sand dune. It is estimated that for a disturbed area of cryptos to become fully functional again, to do all the wonderous things it can, may take as long as 250 years.As I took all this in on my three day journey through various areas of the Park, some more remote than others, I was amazed by the importance of cryptobacteria on this enviroment. It became an awesome and beautiful part of this wonderous area. It added character, depth and color to an otherwise red, orange, and brown environment. However, the real awe inspiring factor to this whole story was that it was not random at all. There was a reason for this part of this environment to exist...and it does not exist on its own. It was placed here for a reason. This soil crust is just one more picture of the awesome presence and mind of God. He created this to protect the desert. Without the crypto the desert, as I said, would be a meandring sand dune. Like all other aspects of Creation, there was an Intelligent Designer behind all of it...and He is still involved in it. The whole thought makes me feel even more important in His eyes because He created me and you for a purpose as well. Seek God's purpose in your life, because there is one.Next time you are out in God's glorious Creation I hope you are able to get a glimpse of this notion as well!!
