Climatic Sensitivity of Dryland Soil CO2 Fluxes Differs Dramatically with Biological Soil Crust Successional State

Tucker, Colin; Ferrenberg, Scott; Reed, Sasha C.

doi:10.1007/s10021-018-0250-4

Cited by 36 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 72 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Generally, microbial communities in moss biocrusts were more similar to the rhizosphere soils, which is interesting given that mosses are plants and, like plant roots, have structures called rhizines embedded in the soil (Jones and Dolan, 2012). Mosses in this area fix more CO 2 compared with earlier-successional (e.g., cyanobacterial) biocrusts (Tucker et al, 2018), and thus carbon supply to the soil microbial community could be part of what supports a similar community between vascular plant roots and the soils beneath moss rhizines. Differences in the bacterial and fungal composition of biocrusts compared to non-biocrust samples may also be related to the soil depth.…”

Section: Microhabitats Are the Strongest Driver Of Differences Acrossmentioning

confidence: 86%

Interactions of Microhabitat and Time Control Grassland Bacterial and Fungal Composition

et al. 2019

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Dryland grasslands are vast and globally important and, as in all terrestrial ecosystems, soil microbial communities play fundamental roles in regulating dryland ecosystem function. A typical characteristic of drylands is the spatial mosaic of vascular plant cover surrounded by interspace soils, where biological soil crusts (biocrusts)-a complex community of organisms including bacteria, fungi, algae, mosses, and lichens-are common. The implications of this heterogeneity, where plants and biocrust cover co-occur, are often explored in the context of soil fertility and hydrology, but rarely has the impact of these multiple microhabitat types been simultaneously explored to determine the influence on bacterial and fungal communities, key biological players in these ecosystems. Further, our understanding of the temporal dynamics of bacterial and fungal communities in grasslands, and of how these dynamics depend on the microhabitat within the ecosystem, is notably poor. Here we used a temporally and spatially explicit approach to assess bacterial and fungal communities in a grassland on the Colorado Plateau, and to link variation in these communities to edaphic characteristics. We found that microhabitat (e.g., vascular plant rhizosphere, biocrust, and below biocrust) was the strongest driver of differences in bacterial and fungal community richness, diversity, and composition. Microhabitat type also significantly mediated the impact of temporal change in shaping community composition. Taken together, 29% of the variation in bacterial community composition could be explained by microhabitat, date, and microhabitat-by-date interactions, while only 11% of the variation in fungal community composition could be explained by the same factors, suggesting important differences in community assembly processes. Soil microbial communities dictate myriad critical ecosystem functions, thus understanding the factors that control their compostition is crucial to considering and forecasting how terrestrial ecosystems work. Overall, this case study provides insights for future studies on the spatial and temporal dynamics of bacterial and fungal communities in dryland grasslands.

show abstract

Section: Microhabitats Are the Strongest Driver Of Differences Acrossmentioning

confidence: 86%

Interactions of Microhabitat and Time Control Grassland Bacterial and Fungal Composition

et al. 2019

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…being able to sequester more carbon (Lange, 2001). Interestingly, no difference of SOC content could be detected between either the wet or the dry year, even though one of the dominant organisms in both crusts, Microcoleus vaginatus, is highly adapted to rain pulses and should increase the SOC content of the soil during a very rainy season (Ferrenberg et al, 2015;Tucker et al, 2019). This lack of feedback could be explained by the fact that during years with little or no rainfall, both biocrust growth and decomposition is restricted (e.g., Thomas et al, 2011), and net loss in SOC is probably low.…”

Section: Biocrusts As Ecosystem Service Providers and Their Role For mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Values resulting from this study might underestimate the actual SOC input by biocrusts in the Caatinga. Later successional stages including bryophytes and lichens, which have been excluded in this analysis, have higher carbon sequestration values (Lange, 2001) and react different to moisture and temperature changes than cyanobacterial dominated crusts (Tucker et al, 2019). The carbon stored in biocrusts represents ca.…”

Section: Biocrusts As Ecosystem Service Providers and Their Role For mentioning

confidence: 99%

Neglected but Potent Dry Forest Players: Ecological Role and Ecosystem Service Provision of Biological Soil Crusts in the Human-Modified Caatinga

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) have been recognized as key ecological players in arid and semiarid regions at both local and global scales. They are important biodiversity components, provide critical ecosystem services, and strongly influence soil-plant relationships, and successional trajectories via facilitative, competitive, and edaphic engineering effects. Despite these important ecological roles, very little is known about biocrusts in seasonally dry tropical forests. Here we present a first baseline study on biocrust cover and ecosystem service provision in a human-modified landscape of the Brazilian Caatinga, South America's largest tropical dry forest. More specifically, we explored (1) across a network of 34 0.1 ha permanent plots the impact of disturbance, soil, precipitation, and vegetation-related parameters on biocrust cover in different stages of forest regeneration, and (2) the effect of disturbance on species composition, growth and soil organic carbon sequestration comparing early and late successional communities in two case study sites at opposite ends of the disturbance gradient. Our findings revealed that biocrusts are a conspicuous component of the Caatinga ecosystem with at least 50 different taxa of cyanobacteria, algae, lichens and bryophytes (cyanobacteria and bryophytes dominating) covering nearly 10% of the total land surface and doubling soil organic carbon content relative to bare topsoil. High litter cover, high disturbance by goats, and low soil compaction were the leading drivers for reduced biocrust cover, while precipitation was not associated Second-growth forests supported anequally spaced biocrust cover, while in old-growth-forests biocrust cover was patchy. Disturbance reduced biocrust growth by two thirds and carbon sequestration by half. In synthesis, biocrusts increase soil organic carbon (SOC) in dry forests and as they double the SOC content in disturbed areas, may be capable of counterbalancing disturbance-induced soil degradation in this ecosystem. As they fix and fertilize depauperated soils, they may play a substantial role in vegetation regeneration in the human-modified Caatinga, and may have an extended ecological role due to the Szyja et al. Caatinga Biocrust Distribution and Services ever-increasing human encroachment on natural landscapes. Even though biocrusts benefit from human presence in dry forests, high levels of anthropogenic disturbance could threaten biocrust-provided ecosystem services, and call for further, in-depth studies to elucidate the underlying mechanisms.

show abstract

“…Biocrusts are a combination of topsoil communities including mosses, lichens, liverworts, bacteria, fungi, algae and cyanobacteria. They play an important role in nutrient cycling (Elbert et al, 2012 ; Weber et al, 2015 ), soil carbon (C) fluxes (Castillo‐Monroy et al, 2011 ; Tucker et al, 2019 ) and runoff/runon dynamics (Chamizo et al, 2012a ; Faist et al, 2017 ; Rodríguez‐Caballero et al, 2015 ), playing a key role in dryland ecosystems' service maintenance (Rodríguez‐Caballero, Escribano, et al, 2017a ; Rodríguez‐Caballero, Paul, et al, 2017b ). The effect that these communities have on dryland surfaces depends on the dominant and developmental stage of the crust (Belnap & Lange, 2013 ; Concostrina‐Zubiri et al, 2013 ; Faist et al, 2017 ; Tucker et al, 2019 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They play an important role in nutrient cycling (Elbert et al, 2012 ; Weber et al, 2015 ), soil carbon (C) fluxes (Castillo‐Monroy et al, 2011 ; Tucker et al, 2019 ) and runoff/runon dynamics (Chamizo et al, 2012a ; Faist et al, 2017 ; Rodríguez‐Caballero et al, 2015 ), playing a key role in dryland ecosystems' service maintenance (Rodríguez‐Caballero, Escribano, et al, 2017a ; Rodríguez‐Caballero, Paul, et al, 2017b ). The effect that these communities have on dryland surfaces depends on the dominant and developmental stage of the crust (Belnap & Lange, 2013 ; Concostrina‐Zubiri et al, 2013 ; Faist et al, 2017 ; Tucker et al, 2019 ). For example, biocrusts can increase water availability for plants by augmenting water retention in topsoil (Eldridge et al, 2020 ) and reducing soil evaporation (e.g., Adessi et al, 2018 ; Chamizo et al, 2016 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

UAV RGB, thermal infrared and multispectral imagery used to investigate the control of terrain on the spatial distribution of dryland biocrust

Blanco‐Sacristán

Panigada

Gentili

et al. 2021

Earth Surf Processes Landf

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Biocrusts (topsoil communities formed by mosses, lichens, bacteria, fungi, algae, and cyanobacteria) are a key biotic component of dryland ecosystems. Whilst climate patterns control the distribution of biocrusts in drylands worldwide, terrain and soil attributes can influence biocrust distribution at landscape scale. Multi-source unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) imagery was used to map and study biocrust ecology in a typical dryland ecosystem in central Spain. Red, green and blue (RGB) imagery was processed using structure-from-motion techniques to map terrain attributes related to microclimate and terrain stability. Multispectral imagery was used to produce accurate maps (accuracy > 80%) of dryland ecosystem components (vegetation, bare soil and biocrust composition). Finally, thermal infrared (TIR) and multispectral imagery was used to calculate the apparent thermal inertia (ATI) of soil and to evaluate how ATI was related to soil moisture (r 2 = 0.83). The relationship between soil properties and UAV-derived variables was first evaluated at the field plot level. Then, the maps obtained were used to explore the relationship between biocrusts and terrain attributes at ecosystem level through a redundancy analysis. The most significant variables that explain biocrust distribution are: ATI (34.4% of variance, F = 130.75; p < 0.001), Elevation (25.8%, F = 97.6; p < 0.001), and potential solar incoming radiation (PSIR) (52.9%, F = 200.1; p < 0.001). Differences were found between areas dominated by lichens and mosses. Lichen-dominated biocrusts were associated with areas with high slopes and low values of ATI, with soil characterized by a higher amount of soluble salts, and lower amount of organic carbon, total phosphorus (P tot ) and total nitrogen (N tot ). Biocrust-forming mosses dominated lower and moister areas, characterized by gentler slopes and higher values of ATI with soils with higher contents of organic carbon, P tot and N tot . This study shows the potential to use UAVs to improve our understanding of drylands and to evaluate the control that the terrain has on biocrust distribution.Twitter: Multi-source UAV imagery was used to study biocrust distribution in a typical dryland ecosystem in central Spain and how it is affected by terrain and soil properties.

show abstract

Climatic Sensitivity of Dryland Soil CO2 Fluxes Differs Dramatically with Biological Soil Crust Successional State

Cited by 36 publications

References 72 publications

Interactions of Microhabitat and Time Control Grassland Bacterial and Fungal Composition

Interactions of Microhabitat and Time Control Grassland Bacterial and Fungal Composition

Neglected but Potent Dry Forest Players: Ecological Role and Ecosystem Service Provision of Biological Soil Crusts in the Human-Modified Caatinga

UAV RGB, thermal infrared and multispectral imagery used to investigate the control of terrain on the spatial distribution of dryland biocrust

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About