No evidence of three herbicides and one surfactant impacting biological soil crusts

Land managers rely heavily on herbicides to mitigate exotic plant invasions but the nontarget effects of herbicides on treated plant, animal, and soil communities are often overlooked. Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) are important components of ecosystems yet the effects of different herbicides on biocrusts are rarely considered. We tested the impact of three widely used herbicides, indaziflam, imazapic, aminocyclopyrachlor, and chlorsulfuron, two of which were applied with or without a surfactant, on biocrusts dominated by mosses or lichens in intermountain grasslands. We found that neither the herbicides nor surfactant impacted biocrust moss or lichen cover within 2 years of their application.