Fig. 1.

Sites of biocrust studies in dryland and non‐dryland regions. Biocrusts occur in all drylands around the world, but also in non‐dryland regions if microclimatic conditions are suitable. Composition of biocrust types varies depending both on continent and climatic region. Dryland regions shown according to UNCCD (UNEP‐WCMC, 2007). Biocrust study sites marked according to list in Rodríguez‐Caballero et al. (2018a). Biocrust types occurring in the different dryland and non‐dryland regions are presented in inset bar charts, with the number of described sites of occurrence on the y‐axis. Bar charts are presented for the different continents, excluding Antarctica.