Swiss and USE researchers use sand to produce biopolymers
In Switzerland, excessive land use, deforestation, and climate change are leading to increased desertification in many regions of the world. Once started, the process often triggers a chain reaction: The loss of nutrients in the soil causes vegetation to become increasingly sparse, which exposes the soil to erosion by wind and water.
Turning desert back into fertile soil requires enormous resources – especially water, which is a precious commodity in desert regions. Researchers at Empa and Khalifa University of Science and Technology in Abu Dhabi have now investigated a novel first step that could enable further soil improvement in sandy deserts: They have breathed life into the sand.
Sand is a particularly challenging substrate for agriculture. It contains no organic nutrients that could sustain microorganisms or plants. Sand grains do not stick together, which makes sandy soils particularly susceptible to erosion. And sand allows water to seep through quickly, resulting in a very high demand for irrigation.
Researchers from Empa’s Cellulose and Wood Materials laboratory, together with their colleagues in Abu Dhabi, tackled all these challenges at once. They added specific bacteria and fungi to the sand, which form structured networks across sand grains, giving them more cohesion. Their results were published in the journal “Carbohydrate Polymers.”
Category: Research
