Desert crust microorganisms, their environment, and human health

Powell, James T.; Chatziefthimiou, Aspassia D.; Banack, Sandra Anne; Cox, Paul Alan; Metcalf, James S.

doi:10.1016/j.jaridenv.2013.11.004

Cited by 61 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 80 publications

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“…Desert environment is generally characterized by a series of harsh conditions, such as poor soils, extreme drought, high salinity, pH and radiation, large temperature variation and wind speed (Xie et al, 2007;Powell et al, 2015). In such environment, many types of vegetations are restricted, which on the one hand brings great difficulties to the local economic development, on the other hand poses a greater challenge for desertification control.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of light and temperature on open cultivation of desert cyanobacterium Microcoleus vaginatus

Lan

Zhang

et al. 2015

Bioresource Technology

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of light and temperature on open cultivation of desert cyanobacterium Microcoleus vaginatus

Lan

Zhang

et al. 2015

Bioresource Technology

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“…The degradation of surface cover results not only in the loss of local soil fertility but also in the increased production of fugitive dust and the intensity of dust storms (5) since unconsolidated surfaces are prone to become sources of particulate pollution by entrainment under otherwise inconsequential windy conditions. Associated problems include reduced visibility, traffic accidents, and road closures (4), as well as more general public health hazards caused by the dispersal of microbial pathogens and toxins (6) and by the chronic impact of particulate pollutants on the respiratory tract (7). Cities such as Phoenix, AZ, USA, and its metropolitan area consistently rank in the worst 5% for particulate pollution according to the American Lung Association (6).…”

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confidence: 99%

Microbial Nursery Production of High-Quality Biological Soil Crust Biomass for Restoration of Degraded Dryland Soils

Ayuso

Giraldo-Silva

Nelson

et al. 2017

Appl Environ Microbiol

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Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) are slow-growing, phototroph-based microbial assemblages that develop on the topsoils of drylands. Biocrusts help maintain soil fertility and reduce erosion. Because their loss through human activities has negative ecological and environmental health consequences, biocrust restoration is of interest. Active soil inoculation with biocrust microorganisms can be an important tool in this endeavor. We present a culture-independent, two-step process to grow multispecies biocrusts in open greenhouse nursery facilities, based on the inoculation of local soils with local biocrust remnants and incubation under seminatural conditions that maintain the essence of the habitat but lessen its harshness. In each of four U.S. Southwest sites, we tested and deployed combinations of factors that maximized growth (gauged as chlorophyll a content) while minimizing microbial community shifts (assessed by 16S rRNA sequencing and bioinformatics), particularly for crust-forming cyanobacteria. Generally, doubling the frequency of natural wetting events, a 60% reduction in sunlight, and inoculation by slurry were optimal. Nutrient addition effects were site specific. In 4 months, our approach yielded crusts of high inoculum quality reared on local soil exposed to locally matched climates, acclimated to desiccation, and containing communities minimally shifted in composition from local ones. Our inoculum contained abundant crust-forming cyanobacteria and no significant numbers of allochthonous phototrophs, and it was sufficient to treat ca. 6,000 m 2 of degraded dryland soils at 1 to 5% of the typical crust biomass concentration, having started from a natural crust remnant as small as 6 to 30 cm 2 .IMPORTANCE Soil surface crusts can protect dryland soils from erosion, but they are often negatively impacted by human activities. Their degradation causes a loss of fertility, increased production of fugitive dust and intensity of dust storms with associated traffic problems, and provokes general public health hazards. Our results constitute an advance in the quest to actively restore biological soil covers by providing a means to obtain high-quality inoculum within a reasonable time (a few months), thereby allowing land managers to recover essential, but damaged, ecosystem services in a sustainable, self-perpetuating way as provided by biocrust communities.

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“…These phenomena can damage infrastructures, telecommunications and crops, affect transportation through reduced visibility, and cause tremendous economic losses. Carrying diversified allergens, dust storms also significantly threaten human health (Goudie, 2009;Higashi et al, 2014;Powell et al, 2015). In a general perspective, West Asia, including Arabian Peninsula, Syria, Iraq and Iran, has been recognized as one of the most important primary sources of dust (Prospero et al, 2002;Boloorani et al, 2013;WMO and UNEP, 2013).…”

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confidence: 99%

Identification of sand and dust storm source areas in Iran

Jian²,

et al. 2015

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Sand and dust storms (SDS) are common phenomena in arid and semi-arid areas. In recent years, SDS frequencies and intensities have increased significantly in Iran. A research on SDS sources is important for understanding the mechanisms of dust generation and assessing its socio-economic and environmental impacts. In this paper, we developed a new approach to identify SDS source areas in Iran using a combination of nine related datasets, namely drought events, temperature, precipitation, location of sandy soils, SDS frequency, human-induced soil degradation (HISD), human influence index (HII), rain use efficiency (RUE) and net primary productivity (NPP) loss. To identify SDS source areas, we firstly normalized these datasets under uniform criteria including layer reprojection using Lambert conformal conic projection, data conversion from shapefile to raster, Min-Max Normalization with data range from 0 to 1, and data interpolation by Kriging and images resampling (resolution of 1 km). After that, a score map for the possibility of SDS sources was generated through overlaying multiple datasets under average weight allocation criterion, in which each item obtained weight equally. In the score map, the higher the score, the more possible a specific area could be regarded as SDS source area. Exceptions mostly came from large cities, like Tehran and Isfahan. As a result, final SDS source areas were mapped out, and Al-Howizeh/Al-Azim marshes and Sistan Basin were identified as main SDS source areas in Iran. The SDS source area in Al-Howizeh/Al-Azim marshes still keeps expanding. In addition, Al-Howizeh/Al-Azim marshes are now suffering rapid land degradation due to natural and human-induced factors and might totally vanish in the near future. Sistan Basin also demonstrates the impacts of soil degradation and wind erosion. With appropriate intensity, duration, wind speed and altitude of the dust storms, sand particles uplifting from this area might have developed into extreme dust storms, especially during the summer.Keywords: sand and dust storm; weight allocation criterion; Kriging interpolation; score map; Al-Howizeh/Al-Azim marshes; Sistan Basin Citation: CAO Hui, LIU Jian, WANG Guizhou, YANG Guang, LUO Lei. 2015. Identification of sand and dust storm source areas in

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Desert crust microorganisms, their environment, and human health

Cited by 61 publications

References 80 publications

Effects of light and temperature on open cultivation of desert cyanobacterium Microcoleus vaginatus

Effects of light and temperature on open cultivation of desert cyanobacterium Microcoleus vaginatus

Microbial Nursery Production of High-Quality Biological Soil Crust Biomass for Restoration of Degraded Dryland Soils

Identification of sand and dust storm source areas in Iran

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