Essential nutritional ions show enrichment (K+, Mg2+) and depletion (NO3−) in runoff water generated by biocrusts covering arid sand dunes under natural rain conditions
Giora J. Kidron,
Bo Xiao,
Abraham Starinsky
Abstract:The role of runoff in providing nutrients to runon loci in deserts was not extensively explored. Here we report 2 years of measurements of the chemical composition of rain and runoff (three events for each year, which correspond to the long‐term runoff events) in plots that were constructed over four biocrust types in the Negev Desert, Israel. The enrichment ratios showed high variability, being high for K+ (3.7), moderately high for NH4+ (1.6) and slightly high for Mg2+ and SO42− (1.2). It was low for Cl− and… Show more
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