Moss-dominated biocrusts improve the structural diversity of underlying soil microbial communities by increasing soil stability and fertility in the Loess Plateau region of China

Bao, Ting; Zhao, Yu-Guo; Gao, Liqian; Yang, Qian; Yang, Kai

doi:10.1016/j.ejsobi.2019.103120

Cited by 36 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…This water is used by biocrust organisms to reactivate their metabolic activity, fixing C and N (Belnap et al, 2005;Aanderud et al, 2018;Miralles et al, 2018;Williams et al, 2018). Fixed nutrients are incorporated into the soil in the form of organic matter and biomass, increasing soil fertility and stability (Ferrenberg et al, 2017;Bao et al, 2019). During rains of similar intensity but greater magnitude, surface saturation of the first centimeters of soil, which is the layer affected by biocrust presence (Chamizo et al, 2012a), is expected (Rodríguez-Caballero et al, 2013).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design Optimization of Biocrust-Plant Spatial Configuration for Dry Ecosystem Restoration Using Water Redistribution and Erosion Models

et al. 2022

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Land degradation is one of the main threats to dryland sustainability in the next decades, hence restoration of the degraded land from drylands is an urgent need to maintain ecosystem functionality and their ability to provide ecosystem services. To achieve this goal, restoration practices should pursue the recovery of the main ground components, arranged in an optimal spatial configuration, to mimic undisturbed natural conditions. Drylands function as complex ecohydrologically coupled systems in which interplant source areas, frequently covered by biocrusts, act as sources of runoff and nutrients to adjacent vegetation, which act as sinks for these resources. Thus, one way to increase dryland restoration success is through an optimal spatial configuration of biocrusts and plants that maximizes an efficient use of the limited resources within the system. In this study, we selected a degraded slope from a limestone quarry located in Almería province (SE Spain) and modeled how active restoration of the biocrust through soil inoculation with cyanobacteria and its combination with different spatial configurations of vegetation affected runoff redistribution and erosion. For that, we applied the spatially distributed Limburg Soil Erosion Model (LISEM) which was able to predict the erosion measured on the slope during the study period with low error (RMSE = 17.8%). Modeling results showed that the introduction of vegetation on the degraded slope reduced runoff between 2 and 24% and erosion between 4 and 17% for the scenario with plants compared to the one without restoration management. Of all the vegetation spatial configurations tested, the one that provided better results was the scenario in which plants were located in the areas of higher water accumulation (higher topographic wetness index). Moreover, we found that active biocrust restoration by cyanobacteria inoculation significantly reduced erosion by 70–90%, especially during the first stages of plant development, while maintaining water supply to vegetation. These findings highlight the potential of water redistribution and erosion simulation models to identify the most optimal spatial configuration of ground covers that maximizes water and nutrient supply to vegetation, while minimizes water, sediment, and nutrient losses by erosion, thus serving as an efficient tool to plan restoration actions in drylands.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design Optimization of Biocrust-Plant Spatial Configuration for Dry Ecosystem Restoration Using Water Redistribution and Erosion Models

et al. 2022

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“…The Loess Plateau region is in the warm temperate semiarid monsoon climate zone, with an average temperature of 6–14 °C. The annual precipitation varies between 400 and 600 mm, with about 70% falling during the summer (Bao, Zhao, Gao, Yang, & Yang, 2019). Northwest China is in the temperate climate zone and extremely arid desert and semi‐desert regions.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatiotemporal variation of soil moisture in Northern China based on climate change initiative data

et al. 2021

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In view of the sparse, uneven distribution and poor data continuity of measured soil moisture sites in China and the lack of large-scale research, the soil moisture data set of the European Space Agency (ESA) Climate Change Initiative (CCI) was applied to carry out spatial-temporal variation analysis of soil moisture in five agricultural ecological zones in Northern China. The Pearson correlation coefficient and multiplecomponent metric Kling-Gupta efficiency were used to verify the validity of remote sensing data and to analyze the temporal and spatial variation of soil moisture with the concept of temporal and spatial persistence. The ESA CCI remote sensing soil moisture data had good spatial and temporal adaptability for the whole year in the Huang-Huai-Hai region, in summer in Northeast China, in spring in Northwest China, in summer and autumn in the Loess Plateau, and in summer and autumn in the Inner Mongolian Plateau. The annual mean soil volume water content in Northern China from 1991 to 2016 was 0.06-0.39 m 3 m −3 . Spatially, soil moisture in Northern China has been gradually increasing from west to east. In this area, seasonally, soil moisture was the highest in summer, followed by autumn and then winter and spring.Northeast China, the Loess Plateau, and the Huang-Huai-Hai region are important grain-producing areas in China. The soil moisture in these areas fluctuates widely with seasonal changes and shows an obvious drying trend.Soil water plays an important role in controlling land-air water and energy exchange. Evapotranspiration, infiltration, and runoff of soil water have a great impact on water circulation and crop growth (Peng, Niesel, Loew, Zhang, & Wang, 2015). In arid and semi-arid regions, soil moisture content determines the growth status of green vegetation and agricultural productivity. A long-term lack of soil moisture is likely to cause an imbalance in energy exchange between the atmo-

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“…Mosses also interact with other members of the microbial communities in soils. The positive effects of mosses on soil stability and organic matter promote favourable microhabitats for microbial communities ( Bao et al , 2019 ) and, therefore, boost the diversity of bacteria and fungi. This biodiversity is higher when compared with bare and cyanobacterial crusted soils ( Maier et al , 2018 ; Tian et al , 2021 ).…”

Section: Biocrust-forming Mosses As Ecosystem Engineers In Drylandsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Mosses also provide critical ecosystem services, but their study has largely been ignored until recently ( Cornelissen et al , 2007 ). In drylands, mosses can act as ecosystem engineers regulating soil properties, microbial communities, and key ecosystem processes such as infiltration, nutrient cycling, and carbon (C) sequestration ( Bowker et al , 2011 ; Delgado-Baquerizo et al , 2016 , 2018 ; Bao et al , 2019 ). In addition, they can also promote the establishment of vascular vegetation during ecosystem restoration ( Havrilla et al , 2019 , 2020 ; Chen et al , 2020 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecology and responses to climate change of biocrust-forming mosses in drylands

Guevara

Maestre

2022

Journal of Experimental Botany

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The interest in understanding the role of biocrusts as ecosystem engineers in drylands has substantially increased during the last two decades. Mosses are a major biocrust component that dominate its late successional stages. In general, their impacts on most ecosystem functions are greater than those of early-stage biocrust constituents. However, it is common to find contradictory results regarding how moss interactions with different biotic and abiotic factors affect ecosystem processes. This review aims to: i) describe the adaptations and environmental constraints of biocrust-forming mosses in drylands, ii) identify their primary ecological roles in these ecosystems, and iii) synthesise their responses to climate change. Our review emphasises the importance of interactions between specific functional traits of mosses (e.g., height, radiation reflectance, morphology, shoot densities) with both the environment (e.g., climate, topography and soil properties) and other organisms to understand their ecological roles and responses to climate change. It also highlights key areas that we should research in the future to fulfil essential gaps in our understanding of the ecology and responses to ongoing climate change of biocrust-forming mosses. These include a better understanding of intra- and interspecific interactions and mechanisms driving mosses' carbon balance of during desiccation/rehydration cycles.

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Moss-dominated biocrusts improve the structural diversity of underlying soil microbial communities by increasing soil stability and fertility in the Loess Plateau region of China

Cited by 36 publications

References 31 publications

Design Optimization of Biocrust-Plant Spatial Configuration for Dry Ecosystem Restoration Using Water Redistribution and Erosion Models

Design Optimization of Biocrust-Plant Spatial Configuration for Dry Ecosystem Restoration Using Water Redistribution and Erosion Models

Spatiotemporal variation of soil moisture in Northern China based on climate change initiative data

Ecology and responses to climate change of biocrust-forming mosses in drylands

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