Abstract
We 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.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1250-1253 |
| Number of pages | 4 |
| Journal | Microbial Biotechnology |
| Volume | 10 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| Publication status | Published - Sept 2017 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2017 The Authors. Microbial Biotechnology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd and Society for Applied Microbiology.
Open Access - Access Right Statement
© 2017 The Authors. Microbial Biotechnology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd and Society for Applied Microbiology. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Keywords
- arid regions
- biotechnology
- cyanobacteria
- desertification
- ecosystems
- restoration ecology
