Dust, biocrusts, and Valley Fever

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Biological soil crusts help stabilize dryland soils, shape belowground microbial communities, and reduce dust emissions. As climate change and land disturbance alter biocrust integrity, these changes may have consequences that extend beyond ecosystem function to human exposure to dust and dust-associated microbes. This project explores links among biocrust condition, soil fungal communities, dust generation, and environmental health in the southwestern United States. A central goal is to understand whether biocrust disturbance changes the composition of soil fungal communities in ways that may influence the movement or environmental occurrence of dust-associated pathogens, including the fungus that causes Valley Fever. The project combines ecological sampling, fungal community profiling, spatial analysis, and targeted work in microhabitats where soil disturbance and fungal reservoirs may overlap. A growing component of this work focuses on community-engaged dust monitoring, household and neighborhood-scale exposure questions, air-quality data, dust analysis, and possible intervention approaches such as indoor air filtration. This project asks how changes to desert surfaces may connect ecosystem degradation, airborne dust, microbial exposure, and environmental justice.

Environmental Justice | MEEP Lab @ SFSU

Dust, biocrusts, and Valley Fever