# Biomass Refined: 99% of Organic Carbon in Soils
## 3 Results and Discussion
### Total Global Soil SOC Refined
#### 3.5.7 Biocrust and Phytomenon (b-SOC) with Contributions to NPP  
The soil Phytomenon, surface Bicorrust or autotrophic biofilm, and epiphytes (that is, pyophytic liverworts, hornnports, epiphytic mosses plus micro-fungi/yeasts, photosynthetic green algae, lichens, and Cyanobacteria or Cyanophyta) coat the convoluted superficial and interstitial surface rocks, topsoil, and sands. According to [127], cryptogamic covers or Bicorrust total \(\sim\)5 Gt C taking up \(\sim\)4 Gt C per year in NPP, but terrain likely doubles values, possibly again at finer scale, to 10-20 Gt C and \(\sim\)8-16 Gt C/yr.  
Ref. [28] found support for initial value in [128] analysis of global carbon content of cryptogamic covers in the Ordovician-Silurian period (\(\sim\)400-500 Ma), suggesting these were similar to today's values (i.e., a baseline \(\sim\)5 Gt C).  
Phytomenon (e.g., soil algae, Cyanobacteria, etc.) and Bicorrust biomass, although amounting to 10-20 Gt b-SOC (as above and in [64]), are often ignored as relatively trivial components of the terrestrial biome. Yet their biomass exceeds all Ocean's and their NPP nears Ocean's. Being surficial, they gain little for soil depth, but as they are ubiquitous in arid and frozen lands too, their multiplication for micro-terrain is validated.  
Biomass of Cyanobacteria, including much proclaimed _Prochlorococcus_ and _Synechococcus_, were reported on by [129]. In arid land soil crusts alone, they are estimated to reach 0.054 Gt C and in endolithic communities, an additional 0.014 Gt C giving a total of 0.068 Gt C. Comparatively, just 0.003 Gt C occurs in lakes. As arid land makes up about a third of total land area, this value may be easily doubled if not tripled, and when doubled again for terrain, the land cyanobacteria component is \(>\)0.27 Gt C on land vs. \(<\)0.17 Gt C in all the Ocean (and a miniscule 0.003 Gt C in Aquatics). Moreover, these authors admit theirs was a conservative estimate, excluding significant land reservoirs such as Polar or Subarctic areas and subhumid topsoils (!). For algal biocrust, as well as tropical blooms, these occur on polar or subarctic rocks, snow and ice too [130], contributing yet more to both biomass and to productivity. Cyanobacteria in Phytomenon far exceed, likely at least double, Ocean's Phytoplankton.  
Ref. [131] found an average 5.5 million micro-algae inhabit each gram of surface soil. They concluded that soil algae added a \"_so far not considered additional_\" 3.6 Gt C/yr NPP. This, they said, is slightly higher than the value reported for soil cryptogams, including bryophytes and lichens, of 0.34-3.3 Gt C/yr. However, table 6 in ref. [132] included cryptogamic \"_bare_\" Earth biocrust and \"_Mosses and lichens_\" respiration (= NPP) as 2.76 and 1.73 Gt C/yr, respectively, to total 4.5 Gt C/yr. Moreover, ref. [133] had photoautotrophic microbes comprised of Bacteria and algae sequestration of 0.6 to 4.9 Gt C/yr based upon a surface area of 14 Gha. If [PERSON] et al. terrestrial soil algal addition of 3.6 Gt C/yr is correct, a combined sum is \(\sim\)8.5 Gt C/yr NPP for a flat land surface area. Doubled for terrain (but not yet for microtopography?), current NPP of ancient biocrust is then about \(\sim\)17.0 Gt C/yr, which easily matches or exceeds the Ocean's.  
Ref. [134] discuss tropical soil algae seasonal bloom as fertilizer.