Semi-arid Regions and Deserts

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

“…Easily peeled-off biocrusts, firstly colonized and stabilized by cyanobacteria, occupy more than 70% of the living coverage in arid and semi-arid areas, and make important contributions to the stabilization, fertilization, and hydrological regulation of topsoil (Belnap and Lange, 2001;Hu et al, 2002Hu et al, , 2012Lan et al, 2014). Thus, fixing sandy surface utilizing biocrust is unquestionably a sustainable technology with broad application prospects (Bowker, 2007) and advantages Lan et al, 2014;Zhao et al, 2016).…”

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

“…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. However, in such environment conditions, many microalgal species can survive well due to the special physiological and ecological characteristics, such as rapid growth mechanism after obtaining water (Lan et al, 2010;Wu et al, 2013), migration in the environment to better acquire resources and avoid excessive radiation (Garcia-Pichel and Pringault, 2001), adaptation to the salinity, drought, high pH and temperature (Xie et al, 2007;Lan et al, 2010;Hu et al, 2012). Therefore, choosing desert regions as the sites of microalgae cultivation, not only can effectively use desert land resource, but also improve the environmental conditions and promote the local economic development.…”

Cyanobacteria

“…Their success as a major component of the biota of deserts, hot as well as cold ones (Wynn-Williams, 2000;Hu, Gao, and Whitton, 2012) is to a large extent due to their ability to survive desiccation. Other survival strategies against desiccation are the endolithic life of some species in protected areas below the surface of rocks (Friedmann, 1982) and the establishment of symbioses with fungi to form lichens.…”