Vertical movement of soluble carbon and nutrients from biocrusts to subsurface mineral soils

•Different biocrust successional stages leach differing nutrients into sub-crust soil.•Moss-dominated biocrust leached more metabolites than other biocrust types.•Lightly-pigmented biocrusts leach the most nitrogen into sub-crust soils.•Nutrient pools below biocrusts are similar between light and darkpigmented crusts.•Leachate content does not affect short term CO2 release from sub-crust soils.