Microbial nursery production of high-quality biological soil crust biomass for restoration of degraded dryland soils

Soil surface crusts can protect dryland soil surfaces from erosion, but they are often negatively impacted by human activities. Their degradation causes loss of fertility, increased production of fugitive dust and intensity of dust storms, with associated traffic problems, and general public health hazards. Our results constitute an advance in the quest to actively restore biological soil covers by providing a means to obtain high quality inoculum within reasonable times to reestablish key but damaged ecosystem services in a sustainable, self-perpetuating way, as provided by biocrust communities.