PubMed · 2026-06-17
Researchers tested whether solar panels in one desert could grow soil crust microbes for transplanting to a different, distant desert — finding that while enough crust can be produced, the resulting community doesn't fully match the target site's native biology.
Biocrust growth rates on transplanted soils matched native soil controls at 0.70 ± 0.16 mg chlorophyll a per square meter per month, showing quantity is achievable.
The microbial communities that developed were compositionally intermediate between the source (Sonoran Desert, sandy soil) and target (Chihuahuan Desert, gypsic soil) sites, not faithful copies of either.
Uninoculated transplanted soils developed biocrusts naturally, suggesting local environmental filtering — not just inoculation — shapes which microbes establish.