What is bioprotection?

Bioprotection encompasses the active or passive roles of organisms in preventing or retarding the action of weathering and erosion agents. It includes a variety of plant, animal and microorganism interactions with sedimentary and rock surfaces which encourage accretion and consolidation and reduce erosion. Bioprotective organisms include microbes that bind sediment particles via mucous secretions, thus hindering their hydraulic or aeolian transport, epilithic lichens that cover rock surfaces thereby buffering them from thermal weathering, and trees in montane forests, which bind rocks and soils with their root systems and prevent landslides.