Rapidly restoring biological soil crusts and ecosystem functions in a severely disturbed desert ecosystem

Abstract

Restoring biological soil crusts (biocrusts) in degraded drylands can contribute to recovery of ecosystem functions that have global implications, including erosion resistance and nutrient cycling. To examine techniques for restoring biocrusts, we conducted a replicated, factorial experiment on recently abandoned road surfaces by applying biocrust inoculation (salvaged and stored dry for two years), salvaged topsoil, an abiotic soil amendment (wood shavings), and planting of a dominant perennial shrub (Ambrosia dumosa). Eighteen months after treatments, we measured biocrust abundance and species composition, soil chlorophyll a content and fertility, and soil resistance to erosion. Biocrust addition significantly accelerated biocrust recovery on disturbed soils, including increasing lichen and moss cover and cyanobacteria colonization. Compared to undisturbed controls, inoculated plots had similar lichen and moss composition, recovered 43% of total cyanobacteria density, had similar soil chlorophyll content, and exhibited recovery of soil fertility and soil stability. Inoculation was the only treatment that generated lichen and moss cover. Topsoil application resulted in partial recovery of the cyanobacteria community and soil properties. Compared to untreated disturbed plots, topsoil application without inoculum increased cyanobacteria density by 186% and moderately improved soil chlorophyll and ammonium content and soil stability. Topsoil application produced 22% and 51% of the cyanobacteria density g⁻¹ soil compared to undisturbed and inoculated plots, respectively. Plots not treated with either topsoil or inoculum had significantly lower cyanobacteria density, soil chlorophyll and ammonium concentrations, and significantly higher soil nitrate concentration. Wood shavings and Ambrosia had no influence on biocrust lichen and moss species recovery but did affect cyanobacteria composition and soil fertility. Inoculation of severely disturbed soil with native biocrusts rapidly restored biocrust communities and soil stability such that restored areas were similar to undisturbed desert within three years. Using salvaged biocrust as inoculum can be an effective tool in ecological restoration because of its efficacy and simple implementation. Although salvaging biocrust material can be technically difficult and potentially costly, utilizing opportunities to salvage material in planned future disturbance can provide additional land management tools.

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).…”

Global Change and the Soil Microbiome: A Human-Health Perspective

“…Of course, there are opportunities to aid in the recovery of our damaged and degraded ecosystems as well as there are possibilities to recover the lost or damaged intestinal flora (Brudnak, 2002;Sheth et al, 2016). This can be achieved by the use of properly designed probiotics or fecal transplants or, in the case of ecosystems, inocula assembled in the lab from pure cultures or soil samples obtained in the field from healthy ecosystems (Bowker, 2007;Chiquoine et al, 2016;Wubs et al, 2016) in conjunction with a balanced nutrient supply (i.e., organic matter inputs, the equivalent to prebiotics; Mathur and Barlow, 2015;Sheth et al, 2016). In this sense, the concept of synbiotics (i.e., synchronous administration of probiotics and prebiotics) could represent a particularly promising benchmark borrowed from the human health literature to successfully restore degraded ecosystems (Tang and Lodge, 2016) and, thus, the human probiotics industry has an opportunity to play a key role in this development.…”

Successful lichen translocation on disturbed gypsum areas: A test with adhesives to promote the recovery of biological soil crusts

“…geomorphology and plant cover), BSCs are normally ignored. Limitations such as the slow growth of their components, low reproduction rates, the destruction of propagules and habitat together with the lack of a clear restoration methodology make the recovery of BSCs especially challenging3101314.…”

“…Practice to enhance BSC establishment include soil stabilisation, resource augmentation, and inoculation-based techniques10. Inoculation is the best-studied and consists of adding cultured or salvaged BSC components to increase propagule availability in the disturbed area14151617. The recovery of cyanobacteria and algae has been achieved in gypsum BSCs over the short term141516.…”

“…Inoculation is the best-studied and consists of adding cultured or salvaged BSC components to increase propagule availability in the disturbed area14151617. The recovery of cyanobacteria and algae has been achieved in gypsum BSCs over the short term141516. However, the recovery of later successional components such as lichens can be extremely slow unless these are translocated91415.…”