Cyanobacteria inoculation has recently become an innovative biotechnological tool for restoring degraded arid soils. A major challenge for researchers, however, is the search for suitable species able to cope with water stress under field conditions. The aim of this study was to test the effect of water availability on induced biocrust growth in three different degraded soils from semiarid areas of Almeria (Spain). Three native N-fixing cyanobacterial strains, Nostoc commune, Scytonema hyalinum and Tolypothrix distorta, were inoculated on soil samples from the study areas, individually and as a consortium. Two different irrigation treatments simulating the water availability in the selected areas, in a dry year (180 mm/year) and a wet year (380 mm/year), were applied for three months under laboratory conditions. Cyanobacteria cover, chlorophyll a spectral absorption (Chla spectral absorption), soil organic carbon (SOC) and total exopolysaccharide (EPS) gains were measured as indicators of biocrust development. Cyanobacteria crust cover, SOC and EPS gains were higher in inoculated soils than in uninoculated soils. Even though the hydration regime had a generally significant effect on cyanobacteria cover, Chla spectral absorption and EPS, similar biocrust development and improvement in edaphic conditions were observed under both hydration regimes for all treatments. Of the candidate inoculants, N. commune showed remarkably higher performance under dry conditions than the rest, providing evidence of high potential for growing under water-limited conditions and being a good candidate inoculant for restoration of arid degraded areas.

蓝藻菌接种最近已成为恢复退化的干旱土壤的创新生物技术工具。然而，对研究人员的主要挑战是寻找能够在田间条件下应对水分胁迫的合适物种。这项研究的目的是测试来自阿尔梅里亚（西班牙）半干旱地区三种不同退化土壤中水的可利用性对诱导的生物结皮生长的影响。三种天然的固氮蓝细菌菌株，诺斯托克公社，透明核球菌和畸形Tolypothrix distorta分别和作为研究对象，分别从研究区域的土壤样品中接种了，，，。在实验室条件下，在干旱年份（180毫米/年）和潮湿年份（380毫米/年）中，采用两种不同的灌溉处理模拟了选定地区的水供应，进行了三个月的灌溉。蓝细菌的覆盖率，叶绿素的光谱吸收（Chl的光谱吸收），土壤有机碳（SOC）和总胞外多糖（EPS）的增加被测量为生物结皮发展的指标。接种土壤的蓝细菌结壳覆盖率，SOC和EPS增幅均高于未接种土壤。即使水化政权对蓝藻覆盖通常显著的效果，叶绿素一在所有处理的两种水合作用下，均观察到光谱吸收和EPS，类似的生物结皮的发展以及水生条件的改善。在候选孕育剂中，N。commune在干燥条件下表现出明显高于其他的性能，提供了在缺水条件下生长的巨大潜力的证据，并且是恢复干旱退化地区的良好候选孕育剂。