Biocrust Amendments to Topsoils Facilitate Biocrust Restoration in a Post-mining Arid Environment.

ABSTRACT: Soil cryptogamic biocrusts provide many ecological functions in arid zone ecosystems, though their natural reestablishment in disturbed areas is slow. Accelerating reestablishment of biocrusts may facilitate the establishment of vascular plant communities within the timeframes of restoration targets (typically 5-15 years). One technique is to inoculate the soil surface using slurries of biocrust material harvested from another site. However, this is destructive to donor sites, and hence the potential to dilute slurries will govern the feasibility of this practice at large spatial scales. We conducted a replicated experiment on a disturbed mine site to test the individual and combined effects of two strategies for accelerating soil cryptogamic biocrust reestablishment: (1) slurry inoculatio

SUBMITTER: Schultz NL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9360975 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature