TY - JOUR
T1 - Microbial inoculum production for biocrust restoration
T2 - testing the effects of a common substrate versus native soils on yield and community composition
AU - Ayuso, Sergio Velasco
AU - Giraldo-Silva, Ana
AU - Barger, Nichole N.
AU - Garcia-Pichel, Ferran
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was supported by a Strategic Environmental Research and Development Grant (SERDP) (W912HQ-13-C-0035-P00005 RC-2329) of the US Department of Defense. The authors are indebted to J. S. Pinilla for his assistance with statistical analyses and data treatment, and to M. A. Bowker and A. A. Antoninka for his assistance with the experiment carried out at Northern Arizona University (Flagstaff, Arizona, U.S.A.). J. M. Ortiz helped with bioinformatic analyses.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Society for Ecological Restoration
PY - 2020/8/1
Y1 - 2020/8/1
N2 - Human activities are causing unprecedented disturbances in terrestrial ecosystems across the globe. To reverse soil deterioration in drylands, a promising tool is the ex situ cultivation of biological soil crusts, topsoil geobiological assemblages that provide key ecosystem services. One approach is to transplant biocrusts cultivated in greenhouse nursery facilities into degraded sites to accelerate recovery. Lichen- and moss-dominated biocrusts have been successfully grown using a common, sandy soil. We compared the use of a common, sandy soil versus native soils as a substrate for the cultivation of cyanobacteria-dominated biocrusts. In greenhouse experiments, we inoculated natural biocrusts collected from three Southwestern USA dryland sites on to either a common, sandy soil or on their respective native soils. The common substrate resulted in a moderate enhancement of growth yield relative to native soils. While changes in bacterial phyla composition remained low in all cases, the use of a common substrate introduced larger shifts in cyanobacterial community composition than did using native soils. The shift increase attributable to the common, sandy soil was not catastrophic—and typical cyanobacteria of field biocrusts remained dominant—unless textural differences between the common substrate and native soils were marked. Because collecting native soils adds a significant effort to growing cyanobacterial biocrusts in greenhouses for restoration purposes, the use of a common, sandy substrate may be considered by land managers as a standard practice. But we recommend to regularly monitor the composition of the grown biomass.
AB - Human activities are causing unprecedented disturbances in terrestrial ecosystems across the globe. To reverse soil deterioration in drylands, a promising tool is the ex situ cultivation of biological soil crusts, topsoil geobiological assemblages that provide key ecosystem services. One approach is to transplant biocrusts cultivated in greenhouse nursery facilities into degraded sites to accelerate recovery. Lichen- and moss-dominated biocrusts have been successfully grown using a common, sandy soil. We compared the use of a common, sandy soil versus native soils as a substrate for the cultivation of cyanobacteria-dominated biocrusts. In greenhouse experiments, we inoculated natural biocrusts collected from three Southwestern USA dryland sites on to either a common, sandy soil or on their respective native soils. The common substrate resulted in a moderate enhancement of growth yield relative to native soils. While changes in bacterial phyla composition remained low in all cases, the use of a common substrate introduced larger shifts in cyanobacterial community composition than did using native soils. The shift increase attributable to the common, sandy soil was not catastrophic—and typical cyanobacteria of field biocrusts remained dominant—unless textural differences between the common substrate and native soils were marked. Because collecting native soils adds a significant effort to growing cyanobacterial biocrusts in greenhouses for restoration purposes, the use of a common, sandy substrate may be considered by land managers as a standard practice. But we recommend to regularly monitor the composition of the grown biomass.
KW - biocrust community shifts
KW - cyanobacteria
KW - ex situ cultivated biocrusts
KW - microbial nursery production
KW - soil restoration
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85080111640&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85080111640&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/rec.13127
DO - 10.1111/rec.13127
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85080111640
SN - 1061-2971
VL - 28
SP - S194-S202
JO - Restoration Ecology
JF - Restoration Ecology
IS - S2
ER -