Microbial biotechnology as a tool to restore degraded drylands.

Fernando T Maestre,Brajesh K Singh,Ricard Solé

doi:10.1111/1751-7915.12832

Abstract

SummaryWe briefly review how microbial biotechnology can contribute to improve activities aiming to restore degraded drylands and to combat their desertification, which are an integral part of the Sustainable Development Goal 15 of the 2030 Agenda. Microbial biotechnology offers notable promise to improve restoration actions based on the use of biocrust‐forming engineered cyanobacteria, which play key roles in maintaining ecosystem structure and functioning in drylands worldwide. Advances in our understanding of microbiome associated to biocrusts and of the signalling involved in the communication among their constituents can also potentially enhance the outcome of restoration activities in drylands.

Highlights

Alterations in climate and land use, such as the intensification of grazing pressure, are main components of ongoing global environmental change that act as major drivers of desertification, defined by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification as land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry subhumid areas resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities
We focus on the contributions of microbial biotechnology to improve the restoration of degraded drylands and to combat desertification, which are an integral part of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 15 of the 2030 Agenda, which aims to ‘protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.’
Microbial Biotechnology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd and Society for Applied Microbiology

Summary

Introduction

Alterations in climate and land use, such as the intensification of grazing pressure, are main components of ongoing global environmental change that act as major drivers of desertification, defined by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification as land degradation (i.e. reduction or loss of the biological or economic productivity of the land) in arid, semi-arid and dry subhumid areas (drylands) resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities. Researchers are exploring restoration actions using communities such as biocrusts, which are formed by mosses, lichens, cyanobacteria and other microorganisms living on the soil surface of the world0s drylands (Fig. 1).

Results

Conclusion