title: 16S; Bryophytes/Lichen-dominated biocrusts
design: Genomic DNA was extracted using the NucleoSpin Soil DNA Extraction Kit. The V3-V4 region of the bacterial 16S rDNA gene was amplified using primers 341F and 805R. PCR program for 16S rDNA gene  was followed (Escolstico-Ortiz et al., 2023).