Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. A close-up of organic material growing on the Great Wall of China. Large swaths of the Great Wall of China are held together ...

Think twice before stepping on that crunchy top layer of soil. It may be a vital ecosystem—one that you can help protect. By Jude Coleman / Knowable Magazine Published Sep 3, 2024 8:00 AM EDT This ...

Have you ever heard of biocrusts? No, it’s not a new kind of pizza crust. Biocrusts refer to a group of tiny desert organisms (like mosses, lichens, cyanobacteria, and fungi) that live on the surface ...

The Great Wall of China, facing erosion and natural degradation, finds an unexpected protector in the form of biocrusts. These 'living skins' made up of plants and microorganisms cover 67% of the ...

Rammed earth portions of the Great Wall of China — built by compressing natural materials with soils — have been regarded as a weak point in its structure. But these swaths of the iconic landmark ...

Biocrust in Utah Nihonjoe via Wikipedia under CC By-SA 3.0 Under the dry, piercing heat of the Utah sun, Sasha Reed is growing plots of plants—and bacteria, lichen and fungi, too. But Reed is no ...

Background and aims Functional traits are increasingly being used to assess the degree to which ecosystems maintain key processes. The functional traits of vascular plants are well-documented but ...

The functional diversity of bacteria and fungi changes significantly over the course of biocrust development Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) are communities of cyanobacteria, lichens, algae and ...

Moab • The sandstone towers near Castle Valley glowed as a few rays of evening light cut through the clouds, but Sasha Reed’s eyes were turned to the ground. A mottled crust covered the deeply ...

The dark surfaces below the vertical cliffs are desert crust, undisturbed by humans but showing fine paths cut by deer. Click here to see larger image. Photo by Jeff Mitton. One morning, early, I ...

Specific compounds are transformed by and strongly associated with specific bacteria in native biological soil crust (biocrust) using a suite of tools called 'exometabolomics.' Understanding how ...

Holly has a degree in Medical Biochemistry from the University of Leicester. Her scientific interests include genomics, personalized medicine, and bioethics.View full profile Holly has a degree in ...