Biological soil crust: The living skin of the desert
The Gurbantunggut Desert, the second largest in China, is located in the center of the Junggar Basin in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. At first glance, it appears to be an endless sea of sand. But look closer, you might notice something unexpected – a thin, dark crust on the sand. This is a biological soil crust, a living layer formed by lichens, mosses, cyanobacteria, and other organisms.
It helps stabilize shifting sand, fight desertification, and support biodiversity. That's why it's often called the "engineer of desert ecosystems." Under natural conditions, it takes 10 to 20 years for this crust to form. But once it does, it signals a turning point – the slow healing of the land and the recovery of fragile desert ecosystems. Today, scientists are working to understand, protect, and even recreate these hidden heroes of dryland ecosystems. Because sometimes, the smallest things make the biggest difference.
RELATED STORIES
CHOOSE YOUR LANGUAGE
- Albanian Shqip
- Arabic العربية
- Belarusian Беларуская
- Bengali বাংলা
- Bulgarian Български
- Cambodian ខ្មែរ
- Croatian Hrvatski
- Czech Český
- English English
- Esperanto Esperanto
- Filipino Filipino
- French Français
- German Deutsch
- Greek Ελληνικά
- Hausa Hausa
- Hebrew עברית
- Hungarian Magyar
- Hindi हिन्दी
- Indonesian Bahasa Indonesia
- Italian Italiano
- Japanese 日本語
- Korean 한국어
- Lao ລາວ
- Malay Bahasa Melayu
- Mongolian Монгол
- Myanmar မြန်မာဘာသာ
- Nepali नेपाली
- Persian فارسی
- Polish Polski
- Portuguese Português
- Pashto پښتو
- Romanian Română
- Russian Русский
- Serbian Српски
- Sinhalese සිංහල
- Spanish Español
- Swahili Kiswahili
- Tamil தமிழ்
- Thai ไทย
- Turkish Türkçe
- Ukrainian Українська
- Urdu اردو
- Vietnamese Tiếng Việt
互联网新闻信息许可证10120180008
Disinformation report hotline: 010-85061466