• fizzle@quokk.au
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    9 days ago

    Sensational title.

    On straw checkerboards laid across northwest China, a dark film spread over treated sand and stayed after seasonal dust storms. […] In trials near the Taklamakan Desert in Xinjiang in northwest China, CAS teams saw crusts stabilize sand within 10 to 16 months.

    So they treated the sand with a microbial sludge and it did not blow away.

    Later in the article …

    Even in the best cases, that still meant waiting two to three years for a mature crust that resists disturbance.

    It’s great that people are researching techniques to increase arable land, but this article is pretty trashy.