Diamonds in the rough: Dryland microorganisms are ecological engineers to restore degraded land and mitigate desertification |
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Authors: | Ramona Marasco Jean-Baptiste Ramond Marc W Van Goethem Federico Rossi Daniele Daffonchio |
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Institution: | 1. King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Biological and Environmental Sciences and Engineering Division (BESE), Thuwal, Saudi Arabia;2. Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
Contribution: Conceptualization (equal);3. King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Biological and Environmental Sciences and Engineering Division (BESE), Thuwal, Saudi Arabia
Contribution: Conceptualization (equal);4. Department of Agricultural, Food and Agro-Environmental Sciences, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
Contribution: Conceptualization (equal) |
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Abstract: | Our planet teeters on the brink of massive ecosystem collapses, and arid regions experience manifold environmental and climatic challenges that increase the magnitude of selective pressures on already stressed ecosystems. Ultimately, this leads to their aridification and desertification, that is, to simplified and barren ecosystems (with proportionally less microbial load and diversity) with altered functions and food webs and modification of microbial community network. Thus, preserving and restoring soil health in such a fragile biome could help buffer climate change's effects. We argue that microorganisms and the protection of their functional properties and networks are key to fight desertification. Specifically, we claim that it is rational, possible and certainly practical to rely on native dryland edaphic microorganisms and microbial communities as well as dryland plants and their associated microbiota to conserve and restore soil health and mitigate soil depletion in newly aridified lands. Furthermore, this will meet the objective of protecting/stabilizing (and even enhancing) soil biodiversity globally. Without urgent conservation and restoration actions that take into account microbial diversity, we will ultimately, and simply, not have anything to protect anymore. |
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