Development of artificially induced biological soil crusts in fields and their effects on top soil

Abstract

Aims Biological soil crusts (BSCs) could improve severe environment ecological conditions by increasing soil moisture, soil nitrogen concentration, and so on. In order to control desertification and recover the destroyed soil fertility utilizing a new means using BSCs, the soil surface was artificially inoculated with Microcoleus vaginatus and Scytonema javanicum. Relationships between the development of the artificially induced biological soil crusts and the distribution and dynamic changes of nitrogen and phosphorus in the soil crusts have been analyzed. Methods Crusts of different ages were investigated by measuring soil physical and chemical factors, such as moisture, pH, total and available N content, and total and available P, which were correlated with the depths of the crusts.

When Is A Lineage A Species? A Case Study In Myxacorys gen. nov. (Synechococcales: Cyanobacteria) With The Description of Two New Species From The Americas

“…Second, the impact of introduced microbial species or lineages to native biocrust communities is currently unknown. Many reclamation studies currently underway assume that biocrust microbes have a widespread cosmopolitan distribution (see Sears and Prithiviraj 2012, Lan et al 2014, Park et al 2017) and that reclamation efforts may then use a few good lab-friendly species for a wide range of localities (Hu et al 2002, Chen et al 2006, Wang et al 2009, Wu et al 2013, Lan et al 2014, Park et al 2017. It is possible that we could introduce cyanobacteria to locales where they could initially outcompete locally adapted populations and species and cause some genetic and phylogenetic diversity in the environment to be lost.…”

Growth responses of five desert plants as influenced by biological soil crusts from a temperate desert, China

“…Because biocrusts can influence many soil factors such as soil surface roughness, porosity, structure, moisture, pH, nutrient availability, and temperature, there are multiple ways biocrusts could influence the germination of seeds and seedling growth. This range of responses may be at-tributed to other effects of biocrusts on the soil such as moisture, which influence the availability of cations and other nutrients (Concostrina-Zubiri et al 2013;Wu et al 2013;Zhao et al 2014) and influence the availability of water and nutrients reaching nearby plants (Boeken and Orenstein 2001). In semiarid Negev ecosystems, seedling establishment in annuals benefits from biocrust disturbance and removal because these disturbance increases seed capture and water infiltration rates (Eldridge et al 2000).…”

Mechanism of biocrusts boosting and utilizing non-rainfall water in Hobq Desert of China

“…This technology has been successfully applied in more than 40 km 2 desert region Liu et al, 2013;Lan et al, 2014;Zhao et al, 2016). The technology is also being largely attempted and further extended globally (Zheng et al, 2011;Liu et al, 2013;Wu et al, 2013b;Xiao et al, 2015;Chiquoine et al, 2016;Mallen-Cooper and Eldridge, 2016). The cyanobacterial-based inoculation technology (inoculation-based technology for short) was applied according to the following experimental flow: (1) suitable strains are selected; (2) a stable mass-cultivation system for growing the selected strains is optimized; (3) a proper culture-dispersal strategy is chosen and optimized; (4) proper techniques for habitat ameliorations were chosen (Liu et al, 2013;Rossi et al, 2017).…”