Abstract. Globally, most bare-looking areas in dryland regions are covered by biocrusts which play a crucial role in modifying several soil surface properties and driving key ecosystem processes. These keystone communities face important threats (e.g. climate change) that place their conservation at risk and in turn the sustainability of the ecosystems they inhabit. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop ecosystem management strategies to ensure their protection. However, to provide a solid path towards biocrust conservation, the understanding by stakeholders and governance structures of the ecological functions of these communities, their role as benefit providers, and the pressures threatening their important effects are indispensable. Whereas the ecological scope of biocrust has been widely studied in the last decades, the social dimension of their role remained unexplored. By reviewing literature in biocrusts from a social–ecological approach, here we identified knowledge gaps and new research areas that need to be addressed in order to produce scientific knowledge that better guides dryland conservation policies and actions. This research agenda is a prerequisite to advance biocrust conservation.

中文翻译：

---

确定社会-生态差距以促进生物地壳保护行动

摘要。在全球范围内，旱地地区的大部分裸露区域都被生物结皮覆盖，生物结皮在改变土壤的多种表面特性和推动关键的生态系统过程方面发挥着至关重要的作用。这些关键社区面临着重要的威胁（例如气候变化），这使他们的保护面临风险，进而影响到他们所居住的生态系统的可持续性。因此，迫切需要制定生态系统管理策略以确保对其进行保护。然而，为了提供一条通往生物地壳保护的坚实道路，利益相关者和治理结构对这些社区的生态功能、他们作为利益提供者的作用以及威胁其重要影响的压力的理解是必不可少的。鉴于生物结皮的生态范围在过去几十年中得到了广泛的研究，他们的作用的社会层面仍未得到探索。通过从社会 - 生态方法审查生物结皮方面的文献，我们在这里确定了知识差距和需要解决的新研究领域，以产生更好地指导旱地保护政策和行动的科学知识。该研究议程是推进生物结皮保护的先决条件。