Biocrust islands enhance infiltration, and reduce runoff and sediment yield on a heavily salinized dryland soil

Kakeh, Jalil; Gorji, M.; Mohammadi, Mohammad Hossein; Asadi, Hossein; Khormali, Farhad; Sohrabi, Mohammad; Eldridge, David J.

doi:10.1016/j.geoderma.2021.115329

Cited by 20 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…scytonemin; Soule et al ., 2009; Karsten & Holzinger, 2014), and many components (e.g. the cyanobacterium Microcoleus and related genera) can also tolerate high salinity levels (Kakeh et al ., 2021).…”

Section: Biocrust‐defining Elementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

What is a biocrust? A refined, contemporary definition for a broadening research community

et al. 2022

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Studies of biological soil crusts (biocrusts) have proliferated over the last few decades. The biocrust literature has broadened, with more studies assessing and describing the function of a variety of biocrust communities in a broad range of biomes and habitats and across a large spectrum of disciplines, and also by the incorporation of biocrusts into global perspectives and biogeochemical models. As the number of biocrust researchers increases, along with the scope of soil communities defined as 'biocrust', it is worth asking whether we all share a clear, universal, and fully articulated definition of what constitutes a biocrust. In this review, we synthesize the literature with the views of new and experienced biocrust researchers, to provide a refined and fully elaborated definition of biocrusts. In doing so, we illustrate the ecological relevance and ecosystem services provided by them. We demonstrate that biocrusts are defined by four distinct elements: physical structure, functional characteristics, habitat, and taxonomic composition. We describe outgroups, which have some, but not all, of the characteristics necessary to be fully consistent with our definition and thus would not be considered biocrusts. We also summarize the wide variety of different types of communities that fall under our definition of biocrusts, in the process of highlighting their global distribution. Finally, we suggest the universal use of the Belnap, Büdel & Lange definition, with minor modifications: Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) result from an intimate association between soil particles and differing proportions of photoautotrophic (e.g. cyanobacteria, algae, lichens, bryophytes) and heterotrophic (e.g. bacteria, fungi, archaea) organisms, which live within, or immediately on top of, the uppermost millimetres of soil. Soil particles are aggregated through the presence and activity of these often extremotolerant biota that desiccate regularly, and the resultant living crust covers the surface of the ground as a coherent layer. With this detailed definition of biocrusts, illustrating their ecological functions and widespread distribution, we hope to stimulate interest in biocrust research and inform various stakeholders (e.g. land managers, land users) on their overall importance to ecosystem and Earth system functioning.

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Section: Biocrust‐defining Elementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

What is a biocrust? A refined, contemporary definition for a broadening research community

et al. 2022

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“…In recent years, an increasing number of studies have demonstrated that biocrusts perform multiple important functions in dryland ecosystems (Delgado‐Baquerizo et al, 2016; Eldridge, Reed, et al, 2020; Maestre et al, 2012; Raggio et al, 2021), which can be assessed with measurable functional indicators (Eldridge, Delgado‐Baquerizo, et al, 2020; Mallen‐Cooper et al, 2020). Biocrusts contribute to erosion resistance by influencing soil aggregate stability and soil shear strength (Belnap & Büdel, 2016), regulate hydrology by influencing hydrophobicity and infiltration (Eldridge, Reed, et al, 2020; Kakeh, Gorji, Mohammadi, Asadi, Khormali, Sohrabi, & Eldridge, 2021), and contribute to nutrient availability by carbon and nitrogen fixation and soil nutrient pools (Barger et al, 2016; Sancho et al, 2016). Biocrusts also contribute to overall dryland productivity (Rossi et al, 2018) and soil microbial diversity and activity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Biocrusts also contribute to overall dryland productivity (Rossi et al, 2018) and soil microbial diversity and activity. Most of the soil functions and processes supported by biocrusts are related to attributes such as cover and species richness or composition (Chen et al, 2020; Eldridge, Delgado‐Baquerizo, et al, 2020; Liu et al, 2017), and influenced by soil surface properties such as salinity (Kakeh, Gorji, Mohammadi, Asadi, Khormali, Sohrabi, & Eldridge, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Collectively, biocrust and soil surface attributes can therefore be used to determine soil multifunctionality and one of the most important soil surface attributes interacting with biocrusts in drylands is soil salinity. Salinity affects many of the soil functions and processes that are facilitated by biocrusts, including erosion resistance (Daliakopoulos et al, 2016), soil hydrology (Kakeh, Gorji, Mohammadi, Asadi, Khormali, Sohrabi, & Eldridge, 2021), nutrient cycling (Wang et al, 2021), growth and survival of vegetation (Jiang et al, 2018), and soil microbial diversity (Zhang et al, 2019). Given that biocrusts regulate many of these important soil properties and processes, biocrusts could mitigate the effects of salinity and maintain or improve soil functioning (Kakeh, Gorji, Mohammadi, Asadi, Khormali, Sohrabi, & Eldridge, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Biocrust diversity enhances dryland saline soil multifunctionality

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Biocrusts are multifaceted communities including mosses, lichens, and cyanobacteria that are crucial for sustaining soil functions in drylands. Most studies on biocrust functions to date have focused on biocrust cover and development, largely in nonsaline soils, and we know very little about the importance of biocrust diversity for maintaining multifunctionality in saline dryland soils. We assessed the direct and indirect linkages between biocrust richness, soil texture and salinity and soil multifunctionality by measuring 13 variables characterizing soil biological, nutrient and hydrological functions across 32 plots in a salinized dryland in northeastern Iran. We assessed the species richness of biocrust patches and characterized soil functions in bare soils. Overall, biocrust species richness declined with soil clay content and soil salinity, whereas soil salinity increased with soil clay content. Structural equation modeling showed a strong positive association between biocrust species richness and all measured dryland soil functions (soil biological, nutrient, and hydrological functions), but soil hydrological function declined with soil salinity. Overall, dryland soil multifunctionality was positively associated with biocrust species richness but negatively associated with soil clay content. Biocrust species richness likely enhances soil multifunctionality via the distinct roles of species and biocrust functional groups in providing carbon and nutrient inputs, creating favourable microsites, enhancing infiltration, and facilitating soil microbial colonization in saline dryland soils. Overall, our findings highlight a key role for biocrust diversity in facilitating and maintaining soil multifunctionality in drylands affected by soil salinity.

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“…All these adverse physicochemical properties strongly limit the development of substrate and subsequent colonization of higher vegetation ( Ye et al, 2002 ; Huang et al, 2011 ). However, compared with higher plants, microorganisms are highly adaptable to harsh environmental extremes ( Remon et al, 2005 ; Alsharif et al, 2020 ; Kakeh et al, 2021 ), and biological soil crusts (biocrusts) are considered to be the soil ecological engineers in mine tailings ( Stewart et al, 2014 ; Gypser et al, 2016 ; Nyenda et al, 2019a , b ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Physical Disturbance Reduces Cyanobacterial Relative Abundance and Substrate Metabolism Potential of Biological Soil Crusts on a Gold Mine Tailing of Central China

et al. 2022

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As the critical ecological engineers, biological soil crusts (biocrusts) are considered to play essential roles in improving substrate conditions during ecological rehabilitation processes. Physical disturbance, however, often leads to the degradation of biocrusts, and it remains unclear how the physical disturbance affects biocrust microorganisms and their related metabolism. In this study, the photosynthetic biomass (indicated by chlorophyll a), nutrients, enzyme activities, and bacterial communities of biocrusts were investigated in a gold mine tailing of Central China to evaluate the impact of physical disturbance on biocrusts during the rehabilitation process of gold mine tailings. The results show that physical disturbance significantly reduced the photosynthetic biomass, nutrient contents (organic carbon, ammonium nitrogen, nitrate nitrogen, and total phosphorus), and enzyme activities (β-glucosidase, sucrase, nitrogenase, neutral phosphatase, and urease) of biocrusts in the mine tailings. Furthermore, 16S rDNA sequencing showed that physical disturbance strongly changed the composition, structure, and interactions of the bacterial community, leading to a shift from a cyanobacteria dominated community to a heterotrophic bacteria (proteobacteria, actinobacteria, and acidobacteria) dominated community and a more complex bacterial network (higher complexity, nodes, and edges). Altogether, our results show that the biocrusts dominated by cyanobacteria could also develop in the tailings of humid region, and the dominants (e.g., Microcoleus) were the same as those from dryland biocrusts; nevertheless, physical disturbance significantly reduced cyanobacterial relative abundance in biocrusts. Based on our findings, we propose the future work on cyanobacterial inoculation (e.g., Microcoleus), which is expected to promote substrate metabolism and accumulation, ultimately accelerating the development of biocrusts and the subsequent ecological restoration of tailings.

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Biocrust islands enhance infiltration, and reduce runoff and sediment yield on a heavily salinized dryland soil

Cited by 20 publications

References 47 publications

What is a biocrust? A refined, contemporary definition for a broadening research community

What is a biocrust? A refined, contemporary definition for a broadening research community

Biocrust diversity enhances dryland saline soil multifunctionality

Physical Disturbance Reduces Cyanobacterial Relative Abundance and Substrate Metabolism Potential of Biological Soil Crusts on a Gold Mine Tailing of Central China

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