WHAT THE EVIDENCE SAYS
A 90-day experiment tested individual and paired cyanobacterial and fungal inocula on quartz sand tailings. Several combinations promoted colonization, extracellular polymeric substances and particle binding, but performance varied among pairings.
WHY IT MATTERS / OUR READ
Biocrust engineering may offer a biological stabilization pathway for some mine wastes, but the treatment is a community-design problem rather than a generic inoculation step.
CAVEATS / UNCERTAINTY
This was a controlled 90-day experiment on quartz tailings. Field persistence, erosion resistance under weather, contaminant context, vegetation establishment and scalability were not demonstrated.
SOURCE
Microbial Ecology
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