Biocrusts positively affect the soil water balance in semiarid ecosystems

Chamizo, Sonia; Cantón, Yolanda; Rodríguez‐Caballero, Emilio; Domingo, Francisco

doi:10.1002/eco.1719

Cited by 166 publications

(144 citation statements)

References 68 publications

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“…To the best of our knowledge, only one study explores the effects of both grazing and aridity on biocrusts (Mallen-Cooper et al, 2018). Considered to be the 'living skin' of soils in drylands (Bowker et al, 2018), biocrusts play key ecological roles: they stabilize soils, thus reducing rates of wind erosion and dust particle production , regulate soil surface temperature (Couradeau et al, 2016), drive soil C (Grote et al, 2010), N (Torres-Cruz et al, 2018), and P (Baumann et al, 2018) cycles, control runoff-infiltration dynamics (Chamizo et al, 2016), and modulate the establishment of plants (Ferrenberg et al, 2018). Considered to be the 'living skin' of soils in drylands (Bowker et al, 2018), biocrusts play key ecological roles: they stabilize soils, thus reducing rates of wind erosion and dust particle production , regulate soil surface temperature (Couradeau et al, 2016), drive soil C (Grote et al, 2010), N (Torres-Cruz et al, 2018), and P (Baumann et al, 2018) cycles, control runoff-infiltration dynamics (Chamizo et al, 2016), and modulate the establishment of plants (Ferrenberg et al, 2018).…”

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confidence: 99%

Grazing pressure interacts with aridity to determine the development and diversity of biological soil crusts in Patagonian rangelands

et al. 2019

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Grazing is directly related to land degradation and desertification in global drylands.Grazing impacts on vascular plants, reasonably well-known, depend on its intensity and are modulated by local aridity conditions. However, we do not know how the interplay of grazing intensity and aridity affect biocrusts, topsoil assemblages dominated by cyanobacteria, lichens, and mosses that provide key ecosystem services in drylands. Here, we determined how grazing affects biomass, total cover, and richness of biocrust structural types across a regional aridity gradient in the Patagonian steppe. On average, grazing by sheep reduced biocrust biomass, total cover and richness of structural types by 55, 90, and 59%, respectively. In general, high grazing pressures had a larger impact on biocrusts than moderate or light grazing pressures.For example, biocrust cover was reduced by 85, 89, and 98% by light, moderate, and high grazing pressures, respectively. Although a slightly different response to grazing was observed under low aridity conditions, these more benign climatic conditions did not compensate for the negative effects of trampling by domestic animals on biocrusts.Nonetheless, estimated biocrust recovery rates under medium aridity conditions were faster than previously thought: it took 24, 18, and 58 years to double biocrust biomass, total cover, and richness of structural types. Sheep cannot be just removed in Patagonian rangelands because the production of meat and wool represents the main local economic activity. But landowners must consider our results to protect the ecosystem functions and services provided by biocrusts for future generations to come. K E Y W O R D Saridity, biocrusts, grazing intensity, Patagonian steppe, recovery rates

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confidence: 99%

Grazing pressure interacts with aridity to determine the development and diversity of biological soil crusts in Patagonian rangelands

et al. 2019

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“…Biocrusts are complex, topsoil microbial assemblages that develop on the primary production of soil cyanobacteria, microalgae (sometimes in algal symbioses), or mosses and that support a large diversity of heterotrophic bacteria (9), archaea (10), and fungi (11). Considered to be a "mantle of fertility" in arid lands (12), biocrusts provide essential goods and services; they stabilize soils and thus reduce rates of wind erosion and dust particle production (13), can influence soil temperature (14,15), contribute significantly to soil C and N inputs into the ecosystem (16), increase the lixiviation of micronutrients (17), control soil hydrological dynamics (18), and are thought to provide good conditions for plant germination and establishment (19).…”

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confidence: 99%

Microbial Nursery Production of High-Quality Biological Soil Crust Biomass for Restoration of Degraded Dryland Soils

Ayuso

Giraldo-Silva

Nelson

et al. 2017

Appl Environ Microbiol

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Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) are slow-growing, phototroph-based microbial assemblages that develop on the topsoils of drylands. Biocrusts help maintain soil fertility and reduce erosion. Because their loss through human activities has negative ecological and environmental health consequences, biocrust restoration is of interest. Active soil inoculation with biocrust microorganisms can be an important tool in this endeavor. We present a culture-independent, two-step process to grow multispecies biocrusts in open greenhouse nursery facilities, based on the inoculation of local soils with local biocrust remnants and incubation under seminatural conditions that maintain the essence of the habitat but lessen its harshness. In each of four U.S. Southwest sites, we tested and deployed combinations of factors that maximized growth (gauged as chlorophyll a content) while minimizing microbial community shifts (assessed by 16S rRNA sequencing and bioinformatics), particularly for crust-forming cyanobacteria. Generally, doubling the frequency of natural wetting events, a 60% reduction in sunlight, and inoculation by slurry were optimal. Nutrient addition effects were site specific. In 4 months, our approach yielded crusts of high inoculum quality reared on local soil exposed to locally matched climates, acclimated to desiccation, and containing communities minimally shifted in composition from local ones. Our inoculum contained abundant crust-forming cyanobacteria and no significant numbers of allochthonous phototrophs, and it was sufficient to treat ca. 6,000 m 2 of degraded dryland soils at 1 to 5% of the typical crust biomass concentration, having started from a natural crust remnant as small as 6 to 30 cm 2 .IMPORTANCE Soil surface crusts can protect dryland soils from erosion, but they are often negatively impacted by human activities. Their degradation causes a loss of fertility, increased production of fugitive dust and intensity of dust storms with associated traffic problems, and provokes general public health hazards. Our results constitute an advance in the quest to actively restore biological soil covers by providing a means to obtain high-quality inoculum within a reasonable time (a few months), thereby allowing land managers to recover essential, but damaged, ecosystem services in a sustainable, self-perpetuating way as provided by biocrust communities.

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“…Cyanobacteria have a positive effect upon water retention due to the production of polysaccharide exudates determining hydrophilic soil properties (Belnap, ). Heterogeneous effects have been reported for lichen‐dominated BSCs (Belnap, ; Chamizo et al., ). We found that soil moisture is mainly related to the presence of crustose and squamulose lichens with an umbiculus or rhizohyphae as anchoring organs (Tables and ), in clear contraposition to the conception that lichens with these morphologies seal soil pores (Belnap, ; Chamizo et al., ; Rodríguez‐Caballero et al., ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Linking biological soil crust attributes to the multifunctionality of vegetated patches and interspaces in a semiarid shrubland

2018

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Understanding the importance of biotic community structure on ecosystem functioning, and whether communities inhabiting different microhabitats in highly heterogeneous areas provide different ecological functions is a challenge in ecological research in the face of biodiversity and habitat loss. Biological soil crusts (BSCs) have been largely treated as unique entities, and have been mostly examined in interspaces between perennial plants, limiting current understanding of their role as drivers of ecosystem functioning and their relative contribution in comparison to vascular plants. We assessed the role of BSCs on ecosystem functioning in vegetated patches and interspaces, and how individual soil functions and ecosystem multifunctionality are related to changes in BSC species‐ and community‐level attributes. We contemplated nine ecosystem functions associated with soil water dynamics, nutrient cycling and erosion potential. We found that vegetated patches improve infiltration rates, soil stability and net potential nitrogen (N) mineralization compared to interspaces, and thus dominate multifunctionality. However, well‐developed BSCs improve soil moisture and N pool in both microsites, and are multifunctional stabilizing soils and regulating soil moisture and infiltration in the interspaces. BSC surface microstructure, including changes in total cover, species richness, morphological functional groups and surface discontinuities, has significant effects on soil moisture. Differences in soil N and phosphorous are mostly related to the presence of BSC‐lichens. The effect of BSCs on multifunctionality varies in dependence of the particular set of functions that are sought to simultaneously maximize. Our results suggest that vascular plants and BSCs have idiosyncratic effects on different key ecosystem functions and multifunction, and BSCs substitute vascular plants in stabilizing soils and regulating water dynamics in the interspaces. BSCs greatly contribute to small‐scale heterogeneity in the functioning of vegetated patches and interspaces, hence consideration of BSCs in different microsites is essential for enhancing our understanding of their functional relevance at a regional scale. In addition, quantification of BSC microstructure is crucial, owing to the contrasting effects of BSC species‐ and community‐level attributes on different functions and multifunction. A http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2435.13044/suppinfo is available for this article.

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Biocrusts positively affect the soil water balance in semiarid ecosystems

Cited by 166 publications

References 68 publications

Grazing pressure interacts with aridity to determine the development and diversity of biological soil crusts in Patagonian rangelands

Grazing pressure interacts with aridity to determine the development and diversity of biological soil crusts in Patagonian rangelands

Microbial Nursery Production of High-Quality Biological Soil Crust Biomass for Restoration of Degraded Dryland Soils

Linking biological soil crust attributes to the multifunctionality of vegetated patches and interspaces in a semiarid shrubland

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