Biological crust of Nostoc flagelliforme (cyanobacteria) on sand bed materials

Nostoc flagelliforme in liquid culture was cultivated on sand bed materials as inoculum and formed a biological crust. The biological crust had no common appearance of wild N. flagelliforme thallus in naked eye observation, but it had natural morphology of wild N. flagelliforme thallus in microscopic observation. By examining the photosynthetic activity, N. flagelliforme cells on sand were found to be heat resistant. The sand grain size had some influence on N. flagelliforme growth, and the growth rate on fine sand was higher than on coarse sand. It is necessary to consider the characteristics of sand particle size to prevent desertification. N. flagelliforme cells could form the algal biological crust, which indicates that the biological crust has potential application in soil desertification and was extremely important to improve desertification.