That idea stems from penetrative root systems, but biocrusts have none of those, says study co-author Matthew Bowker, an ecologist at Northern Arizona University, per Science. They also reduce erosion from wind and water-which contrasts with the prevailing view in heritage conservation that plant growth is damaging. The researchers believe biocrusts give greater stability to the wall through the "secretion of tightly bound polymers," per. "Compared with bare rammed earth, the biocrust-covered sections exhibited reduced porosity, water-holding capacity, erodibility, and salinity by 2 to 48%, while increasing compressive strength, penetration resistance, shear strength, and aggregate stability by 37 to 321%," reads the study published Friday in Science Advances. In comparing those sections to rammed earth sections without biocrusts, they found the former were less porous with higher shear strength and compressive strength. They found moss-dominated biocrusts covered more than 67% of the sections they studied.
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