Structure and Functioning of Dryland Ecosystems in a Changing World

Maestre, Fernando T.; Eldridge, David J.; Soliveres, Santiago; Kéfi, Sonia; Delgado‐Baquerizo, Manuel; Bowker, Matthew A.; García‐Palacios, Pablo; Gaitán, Juan; Gallardo, Antonio; Lázaro, Roberto; Berdugo, Miguel

doi:10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-121415-032311

Cited by 345 publications

(267 citation statements)

References 134 publications

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“…Biocrusts have gained attention for their ecosystem value in stabilizing soils, promoting soil fertility, and enhancing water holding capacity and retention (Maestre et al 2016). Additionally biocrusts may have positive or negative interactions with vascular plants (Reisner et al 2013;Kidron 2014;Xiao and Hu 2017;Xiao and Veste 2017).…”

Section: Biocrust Conservation and Restoration Tools And Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Insolation and disturbance history drive biocrust biodiversity in Western Montana rangelands

Durham¹,

Doherty

Antoninka

et al. 2018

Plant Soil

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Background and Aims Biological soil crust (biocrust) communities, though common and important in the intermountain west, have received little research attention. There are gaps in understanding what influences biocrust species' abundance and distributions in this ecoregion. Climatic, edaphic, topographic, and biotic forces, in addition to anthropogenic disturbance can all influence the biocrust. Methods We determined the relative influence of several possible environmental filters in biocrust communities of western Montana (USA) grasslands at two spatial scales. The larger scale exploited strong topographically-dictated climatic variation across >60km 2 , while the smaller scale focused on differences among distinct microsites withiñ 700m 2 plots. Results We detected a total of 96 biocrust taxa, mostly lichens. Biocrust richness at each site ranged from 0 to 39 species, averaging 14 species. Insolation, aspect, and disturbance history were the strongest predictors of biocrust richness, abundance, and species turnover across the landscape; soil texture was influential for some biocrust community properties. Steep, northfacing slopes that receive longer periods of shade harbored higher diversity and cover of biocrust than southfacing sites. At a small scale, interspaces among native herbaceous communities supported the greatest diversity of biocrust species, but microsites under shrub canopies supported the greatest cover. Conclusions We found that, among the variables investigated, tillage, insolation, soil texture and the associated vegetation community were the most important drivers of biocrust abundance and species richness. This study can inform the practice of restoration and conservation, and also guide future work to improve predictions of biocrust properties.

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Section: Biocrust Conservation and Restoration Tools And Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Insolation and disturbance history drive biocrust biodiversity in Western Montana rangelands

Durham¹,

Doherty

Antoninka

et al. 2018

Plant Soil

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“…The warming trend continues with large uncertainties associated to human's commitment to reduce carbon emission (Millar et al, 2017). Global warming with CO 2 fertilization (Drake et al, 2017), regional increase of droughts and heatwaves (Mazdiyasni & AghaKouchak, 2015;Williams, 2014;Zhang, Xiao, et al, 2016), and aerosol emissions (Landry et al, 2017;Lu et al, 2017) have led to significant impacts on terrestrial ecosystem's structure, function, and evolution (Maestre et al, 2016;McCluney et al, 2012;Pecl et al, 2017;Soliveres et al, 2015;Vazquez et al, 2017). Plant photosynthesis and transpiration are primary functions of an ecosystem, and their variations at different spatio-temporal scales are needed to understand the impacts of climate change on terrestrial ecosystems.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in the Shadow: The Shifting Role of Shaded Leaves in Global Carbon and Water Cycles Under Climate Change

Chen

Gonsamo

et al. 2018

Geophysical Research Letters

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Globally shaded leaves contribute to more than a half of the total increase in gross primary production (GPP; 7.6 Pg C) for 1982–2016. During 1982–2016, the fraction of shaded GPP increases by 1.1% (p < 0.01) in tropical forests and decreases by 1.4% (p < 0.01) and 1.8% (p < 0.01) in evergreen needleleaf and deciduous needleleaf boreal forests, respectively, suggesting an ecological niche of certain canopy structure for ecosystems to achieve maximum GPP. Unlike transpiration from sunlit leaves that has a turning point in the trend in 2003, global transpiration from shaded leaves steadily increased at the rate of 34 km3/year (p < 0.0001) during 1982–2016. Our study therefore suggests that shaded leaves have an increasing role in buffering the adverse impact of climate change and extremes. Further studies are still needed to reduce the uncertainties in reported trends arisen from climate forcing data, leaf area index, and land cover and land change products.

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“…Drylands are the largest biome on Earth, occupying about 45% of the area of the globe and supporting 38% of its human population (Maestre et al. ). Many of these drylands rely on livestock grazing or the harvesting of wild herbivores to support their livelihoods, either under traditional or commercial management systems.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Competition drives the response of soil microbial diversity to increased grazing by vertebrate herbivores

Eldridge

Delgado‐Baquerizo

Travers

et al. 2017

Ecology

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Abstract. Scientists have largely neglected the effects of grazing on soil microbial communities despite their importance as drivers of ecosystem functions and services. We hypothesized that changes in soil properties resulting from grazing regulate the diversity of soil microbes by releasing/suppressing subordinate microbial taxa via competition. To test this, we examined how intensity of vertebrate herbivores influences the diversity and composition of soil bacteria and fungi at 216 soil samples from 54 sites across four microsites. Increasing grazing intensity reduced soil carbon, suppressing the dominant bacterial phylum Actinobacteria (indirectly promoting bacterial diversity) and increasing the dominant fungal phylum Ascomycetes (indirectly reducing fungal diversity). Our data provide novel evidence that grazing modulates the diversity and composition of soil microbes via increases or reductions in competition by dominant taxa. Our results suggest that grazing can potentially alter soil function by altering microbial community composition, providing a clear link between grazing management, carbon availability and ecosystem functions.

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Structure and Functioning of Dryland Ecosystems in a Changing World

Cited by 345 publications

References 134 publications

Insolation and disturbance history drive biocrust biodiversity in Western Montana rangelands

Insolation and disturbance history drive biocrust biodiversity in Western Montana rangelands

Changes in the Shadow: The Shifting Role of Shaded Leaves in Global Carbon and Water Cycles Under Climate Change

Competition drives the response of soil microbial diversity to increased grazing by vertebrate herbivores

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