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Nitrogen Fixation In Arid Western Soils, Robert Charles Rychert
Nitrogen Fixation In Arid Western Soils, Robert Charles Rychert
All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023
Nitrogen fixation by blue-green algae-lichen crusts from South Curlew Valley, Utah, in the Great Basin Desert, was studied using the acetylene reduction technique. A molar ratio of 3 moles C2H4 produced/mole of N2 fixed was used to estimate nitrogen (N2) fixation by acetylene reduction. Nostoc was found to be present in many of the lichen thalli examined microscopically. Crust nitrogen fixation decreased rapidly below -1/3 bar pressure (water potential) which indicated that nitrogen fixation occurs only when the crust is wet. This would suggest that most of the crust nitrogen fixation in the Great …