Sediment content and chemical properties of water runoff on biocrusts in drylands

Abstract

In drylands, water erosion can be a process with important economic and ecological implications, and is very dependent on the soil surface cover. There is broad agreement that biocrusts protect the soil from erosion in a wide range of circumstances. However, there is little information available on the effect of rain and biocrust types on this protective capacity and there is particularly very little knowledge on the erosive effects of runoff on biocrusts, which are expected to be larger in larger drainage areas, on the resistance of biocrusts to the combined effect of raindrops plus runoff flow and on the solute mobilisation by runoff in biocrusts. To answer these questions, we performed 96 rainfall-simulationin situ factorial experiments, including two biocrust types (cyanobacteria and lichens), three rain types (42, 63 and 77 mm h −1 , always 20 min rain), four plot lengths (1, 2, 3 and 4 m long) and four replicates. In each experiment, runoff volume was measured and a runoff sample was taken to determine (i) the amount of dry matter in runoff, (ii) the amount of organic matter among the dry matter, (iii) the electrical conductivity, pH and alkalinity in runoff water. The main findings were: biocrusts strongly protected soil against water erosion, even under the most erosive conditions, and the protection increased with the successional development. Biocrusts were very resistant to the impact of raindrops and also to runoff flow, although an emergent hypothesis arose: under the most erosive conditions, a threshold of erodibility could be reached at the cyanobacterial biocrust. The lichen crust also protected the soil against the removal of soil soluble substances. The development of a biocrust could change the chemical composition of the solutes in runoff.

Biological soil crusts: diminutive communities of potential global importance

“…). They play important roles in ecosystem stability and development: cyanobacterial exudates glue together surface soils, substantially reducing soil erosion from wind and water (Lázaro and Mora ; Bu et al . ; Belnap and Büdel ).…”

Effects of vegetation at different succession stages on soil properties and water flow in sandy soil

“…Under proper conditions, seedlings of trees and shrubs may appear here, forming a base for advanced successional stages leading to the climax pine-oak or oak forest vegetation (Krippelová & Krippel 1956;Krippel 1969;Stanová 1995a, b). The process of succession is affected also by biological soil crust (BSC) communities of living organisms on the soil surface composed of fungi, lichens, cyanobacteria, bryophytes, and algae in varying proportions -which perform important ecological roles including carbon fixation, nitrogen fixation, soil stabilization, soil albedo and water relation alterations, and affect germination and nutrient levels in vascular plant (Drahorad et al 2013;Lichner et al 2013;Cantón et al 2014;Lázaro & Mora 2014).…”

Effect of vegetation and its succession on water repellency in sandy soils

“…Bacteria can block smaller pores and reduce flow of water through soil due to adhesive or surface active compounds that can alter surface tension and affect water retention (Hallett, Karim, Bengough, & Otten, 2013). A lichen crust can protect the soil against the removal of soil soluble substances (Lázaro & Mora, 2014). Soil fungi enmesh particles with their network of hyphae, which along with excretion of proteins and other compounds (mainly polysaccharides- Flemming & Wingender, 2010;Kidron, Ying, Starinsky, & Herzberg, 2017) that bond soil particles, lead to increased soil stability protecting it from wind erosion (Tisdall, Nelson, Wilkinson, Smith, & McKenzie, 2012).…”