IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i1p863-d1023936.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How Can We Stabilize Soil Using Microbial Communities and Mitigate Desertification?

Author

Listed:
  • Faten Dhawi

    (Agricultural Biotechnology Department, College of Agricultural and Food Sciences, King Faisal University, Al Ahsa 31982, Saudi Arabia)

Abstract

The desert, which covers around one-third of Earth’s continental surface, is defined as the harshest terrestrial environment and comprises a highly extensive biome of the terrestrial ecosystem. Microorganisms are key drivers that maintain the integrity of desert terrestrial ecosystems. Over the past few decades, desertification has increased owing to changes in rainfall patterns and global warming, characterized by land degradation, loss of microbial diversity (biocrust diversity), and multifunctionality with time. Soil stabilization is a geotechnical modality that improves the physiochemical properties of the soil. Biological modality is an emerging method that attracts the scientific community for soil stabilization. Enriching the soil with microorganisms such as some bacteria geniuses ( Cystobacter, Archangium, Polyangium, Myxococcus, Stigmatella and Sorangium, Bacillus, Acinetobacter, Proteus, Micrococcus, and Pseudom) or Cyanobacteria ( Oscillatoria pseudogeminata, Chroococcus minutus, Phormidium Tenue, and Nostoc species ) , and Lichens (Collema sps., Stellarangia sps., and Buellia species ) might contribute to stabilizing the soil and mitigating desertification. In this timeline review article, we summarize the biological method of soil stabilization, especially focusing on the role of microorganisms in soil stabilization in the desert.

Suggested Citation

  • Faten Dhawi, 2023. "How Can We Stabilize Soil Using Microbial Communities and Mitigate Desertification?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:1:p:863-:d:1023936
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/1/863/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/1/863/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jianping Huang & Haipeng Yu & Xiaodan Guan & Guoyin Wang & Ruixia Guo, 2016. "Accelerated dryland expansion under climate change," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 6(2), pages 166-171, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chen, Qi & Qu, Zhaoming & Ma, Guohua & Wang, Wenjing & Dai, Jiaying & Zhang, Min & Wei, Zhanbo & Liu, Zhiguang, 2022. "Humic acid modulates growth, photosynthesis, hormone and osmolytes system of maize under drought conditions," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 263(C).
    2. Ma, Shuai & Wang, Liang-Jie & Chu, Lei & Jiang, Jiang, 2023. "Determination of ecological restoration patterns based on water security and food security in arid regions," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 278(C).
    3. Abid, Nabila & Ahmad, Fayyaz & Aftab, Junaid & Razzaq, Asif, 2023. "A blessing or a burden? Assessing the impact of Climate Change Mitigation efforts in Europe using Quantile Regression Models," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    4. Khalifa, Sherin & Henning, Christian H. C. A., 2020. "Climate change and civil conflict in SSA and MENA: The same phenomena, but different mechanisms?," Working Papers of Agricultural Policy WP2020-03, University of Kiel, Department of Agricultural Economics, Chair of Agricultural Policy.
    5. Lenka Lackóová & Tatiana Kaletová & Klaudia Halászová, 2023. "Are Drought and Wind Force Driving Factors of Wind Erosion Climatic Erosivity in a Changing Climate? A Case Study in a Landlocked Country in Central Europe," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-18, March.
    6. Sourav Mukherjee & Ashok Kumar Mishra & Jakob Zscheischler & Dara Entekhabi, 2023. "Interaction between dry and hot extremes at a global scale using a cascade modeling framework," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-15, December.
    7. Jinquan Li & Junmin Pei & Changming Fang & Bo Li & Ming Nie, 2024. "Drought may exacerbate dryland soil inorganic carbon loss under warming climate conditions," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.
    8. Juan F. Fernández-Manjarrés & Paloma Ruiz-Benito & Miguel A. Zavala & J. Julio Camarero & Fernando Pulido & Vânia Proença & Laetitia Navarro & Roxane Sansilvestri & Elena Granda & Laura Marqués & Mart, 2018. "Forest Adaptation to Climate Change along Steep Ecological Gradients: The Case of the Mediterranean-Temperate Transition in South-Western Europe," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-18, August.
    9. Jinfei Hu & Guangju Zhao & Pengfei Li & Xingmin Mu, 2022. "Variations of pan evaporation and its attribution from 1961 to 2015 on the Loess Plateau, China," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 111(2), pages 1199-1217, March.
    10. Zexi Shen & Qiang Zhang & Vijay P. Singh & Yadu Pokhrel & Jianping Li & Chong-Yu Xu & Wenhuan Wu, 2022. "Drying in the low-latitude Atlantic Ocean contributed to terrestrial water storage depletion across Eurasia," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-10, December.
    11. Iwona Gottfried & Tomasz Gottfried & Grzegorz Lesiński & Grzegorz Hebda & Maurycy Ignaczak & Grzegorz Wojtaszyn & Mirosław Jurczyszyn & Maciej Fuszara & Elżbieta Fuszara & Witold Grzywiński & Grzegorz, 2020. "Long-term changes in winter abundance of the barbastelle Barbastella barbastellus in Poland and the climate change – Are current monitoring schemes still reliable for cryophilic bat species?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(2), pages 1-18, February.
    12. Zhaoxia Ye & Aihong Fu & Shuhua Zhang & Yuhai Yang, 2020. "Suitable Scale of an Oasis in Different Scenarios in an Arid Region of China: A Case Study of the Ejina Oasis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-14, March.
    13. Malpede, Maurizio & Percoco, Marco, 2024. "The long-term economic effects of aridification," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 217(C).
    14. Qifei Zhang & Yaning Chen & Zhi Li & Congjian Sun & Yanyun Xiang & Zhihui Liu, 2023. "Spatio-Temporal Development of Vegetation Carbon Sinks and Sources in the Arid Region of Northwest China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-23, February.
    15. Zhang, Xucheng & Wang, Hongli & Hou, Huizhi & Yu, Xianfeng & Ma, Yifan & Fang, Yanjie & Lei, Kangning, 2020. "Did plastic mulching constantly increase crop yield but decrease soil water in a semiarid rain-fed area?," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 241(C).
    16. Georgia Titcomb & John Naisikie Mantas & Jenna Hulke & Ivan Rodriguez & Douglas Branch & Hillary Young, 2021. "Water sources aggregate parasites with increasing effects in more arid conditions," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-12, December.
    17. Ruiwen Zhang & Chengyi Zhao & Xiaofei Ma & Karthikeyan Brindha & Qifei Han & Chaofan Li & Xiaoning Zhao, 2019. "Projected Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Drought under Global Warming in Central Asia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(16), pages 1-19, August.
    18. Welle, Paul D. & Medellín-Azuara, Josué & Viers, Joshua H. & Mauter, Meagan S., 2017. "Economic and policy drivers of agricultural water desalination in California’s central valley," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 194(C), pages 192-203.
    19. Francisca Ruiz-Gozalvo & Susana Martín-Fernández & Roberto Garfias-Salinas, 2019. "Characterization of Small Forest Landowners as a Basis for Sustainable Forestry Management in the Libertador General Bernardo O’Higgins Region, Chile," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(24), pages 1-15, December.
    20. Jinling Piao & Wen Chen & Shangfeng Chen & Hainan Gong & Lin Wang, 2021. "Mean states and future projections of precipitation over the monsoon transitional zone in China in CMIP5 and CMIP6 models," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 169(3), pages 1-24, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:1:p:863-:d:1023936. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.