Synopsis: Influence of Biological Soil Crusts on Arid Land Hydrology and Soil Stability

2001 ◽  
pp. 349-360 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. D. Warren
Keyword(s):  
Biological Soil Crusts ◽  
Arid Land ◽  
Soil Stability ◽  
Soil Crusts ◽  
Land Hydrology

scholarly journals Optimizing the Production of Nursery-Based Biological Soil Crusts for Restoration of Arid Land Soils

2019 ◽  
Vol 85 (15) ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Bethany ◽  
Ana Giraldo-Silva ◽  
Corey Nelson ◽  
Nichole N. Barger ◽  
Ferran Garcia-Pichel
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Soil Fertility ◽  
Erosion Resistance ◽  
Growth Dynamics ◽  
Biological Soil Crusts ◽  
Livestock Grazing ◽  
Arid Land ◽  
Cold Desert ◽  
Area Of Interest ◽  
Soil Crusts

ABSTRACTBiological soil crusts (biocrusts) are topsoil communities formed by cyanobacteria or other microbial primary producers and are typical of arid and semiarid environments. Biocrusts promote a range of ecosystem services, such as erosion resistance and soil fertility, but their degradation by often anthropogenic disturbance brings about the loss of these services. This has prompted interest in developing restoration techniques. One approach is to source biocrust remnants from the area of interest for scale-up cultivation in a microbial “nursery” that produces large quantities of high-quality inoculum for field deployment. However, growth dynamics and the ability to reuse the produced inoculum for continued production have not been assessed. To optimize production, we followed nursery growth dynamics of biocrusts from cold (Great Basin) and hot (Chihuahuan) deserts. Peak phototrophic biomass was attained between 3 and 7 weeks in cold desert biocrusts and at 12 weeks in those from hot deserts. We also reused the resultant biocrust inoculum to seed successive incubations, tracking both phototroph biomass and cyanobacterial community structure using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. Hot desert biocrusts showed little to no viability upon reinoculation, while cold desert biocrusts continued to grow, but at the expense of progressive shifts in species composition. This leads us to discourage the reuse of nursery-grown inoculum. Surprisingly, growth was highly variable among replicates, and overall yields were low, a fact that we attribute to the demonstrable presence of virulent and stochastically distributed but hitherto unknown cyanobacterial pathogens. We provide recommendations to avoid pathogen incidence in the process.IMPORTANCEBiocrust communities provide important ecosystem services for arid land soils, such as soil surface stabilization promoting erosion resistance and contributing to overall soil fertility. Anthropogenic degradation to biocrust communities (through livestock grazing, agriculture, urban sprawl, and trampling) is common and significant, resulting in a loss of those ecosystem services. Losses impact both the health of the native ecosystem and the public health of local populations due to enhanced dust emissions. Because of this, approaches for biocrust restoration are being developed worldwide. Here, we present optimization of a nursery-based approach to scaling up the production of biocrust inoculum for field restoration with respect to temporal dynamics and reuse of biological materials. Unexpectedly, we also report on complex population dynamics, significant spatial variability, and lower than expected yields that we ascribe to the demonstrable presence of cyanobacterial pathogens, the spread of which may be enhanced by some of the nursery production standard practices.

Wildfire-resistant biological soil crusts and fire-induced loss of soil stability in Palouse prairies, USA

2004 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew A Bowker ◽  
Jayne Belnap ◽  
Roger Rosentreter ◽  
Bernadette Graham
Keyword(s):  
Biological Soil Crusts ◽  
Soil Stability ◽  
Soil Crusts

Biological soil crusts exhibit a dynamic response to seasonal rain and release from grazing with implications for soil stability

2009 ◽  
Vol 73 (12) ◽  
pp. 1158-1169 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Jimenez Aguilar ◽  
E. Huber-Sannwald ◽  
J. Belnap ◽  
D.R. Smart ◽  
J.T. Arredondo Moreno
Keyword(s):  
Dynamic Response ◽  
Biological Soil Crusts ◽  
Soil Stability ◽  
Soil Crusts

Discussion on wind factor influencing the distribution of biological soil crusts on surface of sand dunes

2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (6) ◽  
pp. 739
Author(s):  
Wu YongSheng ◽  
Erdun Hasi ◽  
Yin RuiPing ◽  
Zhang Xin ◽  
Ren Jie ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sand Dunes ◽  
Biological Soil Crusts ◽  
Soil Crusts

2‐Methylhopanoids in geographically distinct, arid biological soil crusts are primarily cyanobacterial in origin

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamsyn J. Garby ◽  
Matthew Jordan ◽  
Verlaine Timms ◽  
Malcolm R. Walter ◽  
Brett A. Neilan
Keyword(s):  
Biological Soil Crusts ◽  
Soil Crusts
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