Yunge Zhao

Enhanced Recovery of Biological Soil Crusts After Disturbance

Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) are sensitive to anthropogenic and natural disturbances and are slow to recover in many ecosystems. Rehabilitation of biocrusts can accelerate the recovery of their structure and function and also assist in speeding restoration of degraded ecosystems. In this chapter we review the theoretical foundations, principles, and methods of biocrust rehabilitation and its effect on the recovery of ecological functions. Several studies have demonstrated the feasibility of rehabilitation by inoculations with biocrust organisms. They include the culture of cyanobacteria and mosses in the laboratory and their application as field inoculant. Rehabilitation of lichen crusts has been less successful to date, as lichens require much longer to grow under lab or field conditions. There are still many topics worthy of future study, including the improvement of methods for field application of biocrust inocula, the scaling-up of moss culture techniques, and the exploration of more moss species as inocula.

Soil quality indices and their application in the hilly loess plateau region of China

Soil quality in the hilly Loess Plateau region of China is seriously degraded due to hillside cultivation and severe soil erosion. No established methods are available for evaluating the regional soil quality nor has integrated soil quality assessment been conducted in the region. Our objectives were to (i) develop soil quality models and assessment methods, (ii) verify the representativeness of selected soil quality indicators, and (iii) evaluate landuse effects on regional soil quality. The research was conducted on 707 km2 of typical hilly Loess Plateau in Shaanxi province, China. Soil samples (total 208) were taken from 5 catchments under 10 different landuse types. Two integrated evaluation methods (weighted summation and weighted product) and 2 indicator sets (a whole and a minimum set) were tested, each producing a soil quality index. Quantitative evaluation of soil quality in different landuse types was also performed. The results showed that the weighted product method provided better differentiation of soil quality between landuses. The minimum indicator set of 8 soil quality indicators, selected by factor analysis from a complete set of 29 soil attributes, reflected all or most of the information of the whole set in assessing regional soil quality. Soil quality index (SQI) values under different landuse types ranged from 0.842 for natural woodland to 0.150 for orchard. Index values for orchard, cropland, revegetated grassland, and planted grassland were significantly less than those for 6 other landuse types, whereas planted shrubland, planted woodland, and natural grassland indices were significantly less than those for greenhouse, natural shrubland, and natural woodland. No significant difference in SQI was found between orchard, cropland, revegetated grassland, and planted grassland, or between planted shrubland and planted woodland. Overall, it was found that soil quality was generally poor across the region, except for natural woodland, shrubland and greenhouse areas.