Bio-engineering and Desertification
Drylands make up about 40% of Earth's land mass and are home to about 40% of the human population, Most dryland ecosystems are adaptive to low levels of water and precipitation, but overgrazing and warmer climates have put many drylands at risk to desertification- the makings of a desert from a collapsed ecosystem. However, Ricard Solé, a biophysicist at Pompeu Fabra University in Spain and a team of analyst have created a computer model to simulate the effects bio-engineering microbes in the soil might have on these dryland environment. The hope is that splicing genes into the soil microbes and bacteria will help make the drylands more resilient to climate change and push off the "tipping point" for another couple decades- allowing scientists more time to figure out even better solutions. For example, genes could be spliced in that allow photosynthetic bacteria to store more water and phosphorus, enriching the soil and allowing more plants to grow, creating shade which in turn helps more bacteria to thrive. The computer models have shown success so far, giving hope that these drylands can survive just a little longer with some help.
Though some people are against gene editing- and I would agree in most cases, especially involving humans- in instances like these where human interference in the environment could actual benefit the ecosystems there, I fully support scientists splicing new genes into the soil bacteria. Preserving these drylands will help save the homes of countless populations, human and animal alike. Without their natural environment, native dryland species are at a higher risk of extinction. In addition, if these areas were to convert to full desert, costly modifications would have to be made, or a lot of people would have to move elsewhere in order to survive the increasingly harsh conditions. Thus, its in the best interest of everyone to try and preserve these environments.
Article: https://www.insidescience.org/news/bioengineered-soil-microbes-may-help-prevent-desertification
I think that it is cool that we can use technology that was ideally invented for humans, and use it to save environments. We can use these tools that were made for ourselves to fix damage that we have caused to the environment. I believe that this would be a good thing to try in ecosystems like what the article talked about.
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