Scientists found a way for Desert Sand to store longer water

Scientists found a way to hold water longer in the sandy land. It's important to farmers because it's hard to maintain the moisture of plant media.

It's a challenge for farmers, especially for sprinklers. The water quickly enters the gap between the grains of sand so the soil is dry fast. But scientists have found a way to hold water longer by making sand live.

Melting from Science Alert, scientists have tested the aptitude of fibers that bacteria and fungi produce in binding the grains of sand.

The microbes were allowed to grow in the sand and create material that they call "living sand." Based on testing, this material can reduce water loss by six times.

And then in another approach, they grow a thin layer of bacterium cellulose and put it in between layers of sand. The test results show this method is able to reduce water performance by 28.

Scientists use Komagagaebacter medellinensis cellulosis bacteria, and then two strains of mushroom Schizophyllum commune. They both come from the same species but have a different characteristic of growth.

The study was published in Carbulydrate Polymers' journal using sand from sand dunes near Al Ain, the Arab Emirate Union and the standard sand lab for testing certain powers.

Before using microbes and nutritional solution, the sand is first sterilized.

Judging by the image of a microscope, the cellulose of bacteria attaches to the surface of the sand grains and connects the adjacent bubbles.

The surging of the Science Alert, within seven days, formed a six-centimeter, solid fused sand column. This block of sand can be removed from prints and cut into pieces. This piece of sand stays intact when put in the water.

Meanwhile, fungi can also bind grains of sand. But it tends to be fragile and some of it crumbles when it's removed from the mold.

And then at the second approach, researchers grew cellulose sheets separately and were inserted between the layers of sand. This sheet acts as an amplifier.

When a demonstration weighs 10 kg, an untreated sand cube collapses. But the sand on the sheet looks stronger.

The tests continue by pouring water and measuring how fast the water is coming out. Between the sand growing from the fibers and given the amplifier layer, the sand with the amplifier layer can reduce permeability by up to 28.

Meanwhile, the sand growing fibers can reduce permeability by about six times as much.

The results are exciting but the research is still a lab test. Microbes are placed in water and nutrients under control. Their growth pounds need oxygen.