The influence of competition between lichen colonization and erosion on the evolution of soil surfaces in the Tabernas badlands (SE Spain) and its landscape effects

Lázaro, Roberto; Cantón, Yolanda; Solé‐Benet, Albert; Bevan, J.; Alexánder, Roy; Sancho, Leopoldo G.; Puigdefábregas, Juan

doi:10.1016/j.geomorph.2008.05.005

Cited by 138 publications

(122 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…These measured OC mobilization rates are lower than those estimated by Kidron (2001) in Negev but in agreement with those found by Barger et al (2006), who under simulated extreme rainfall, measured TOC losses of 0.9 to 7.9 g m -2 for intact late-successional dark cyanolichen crust and early-successional light cyanobacteria crust, respectively. Their results also coincide with ours with respect to biocrust development reducing TOC losses as a consequence of the widely demonstrated biocrust effects of reducing water erosion (Bowker et al, 2008;Chamizo et al, 2012a;Lázaro et al, 2008) and strongly contributing to nutrient retention (Delgado-Baquerizo et al, 2010;Chamizo et al, 2012b;Kidron et al, 2010). Cyanobacteria filaments and extracellular secretions act as gluing agents, binding soil particles and increasing the formation of soil aggregates, and thus increasing soil stability (Chamizo et al, 2010(Chamizo et al, , 2012bChaudhary et al, 2009;Kidron et al, 2009;Zhao et al, 2014).…”

Section: Dynamics Of Oc Losses In Biocrustssupporting

confidence: 84%

“…Thus, most soil in the interplant spaces is covered by either physical crusts (30%), mainly structural crusts formed by raindrop impact, or biocrusts (50%) composed of rich communities with a high diversity of species. Previous studies have identified four main soil crust types, from less to higher crust development, in this area (Chamizo et al, 2012a;Lázaro et al, 2008) (Fig. 1): 1) a physical soil crust, 2) an incipient or little-developed cyanobacteria crust, 3) a dark well-developed cyanobacteria crust, which also contains numerous pioneer lichens, including Placynthium nigrum, Collema spp., Endocarpon pusillum, Catapyrenium rufescens and Fulgensia spp., and 4) a light-colored lichen crust mainly composed of the Diploschistes diacapasis and Squamarina lentigera species of lichens.…”

Section: Materials and Methods Study Sitementioning

confidence: 95%

“…Biocrust loss increases water and wind erosion (Bowker et al, 2008;Chamizo et al, 2010Chamizo et al, , 2012aEldridge and Greene, 1994;Lázaro et al, 2008;McKenna-Neuman et al, 1996), triggering OC losses and reducing the capacity of soils to trap nutrient-enriched dust (Reynolds et al, 2001). Human disturbances in semiarid areas leading to biocrust disturbance alter the balanced transfer of OC to vegetated patches.…”

Section: Organic Carbon Dynamics After Crust Removalmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Dynamics of organic carbon losses by water erosion after biocrust removal

Cantón

Román

Chamizo

et al. 2014

Journal of Hydrology and Hydromechanics

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Abstract:In arid and semiarid ecosystems, plant interspaces are frequently covered by communities of cyanobacteria, algae, lichens and mosses, known as biocrusts. These crusts often act as runoff sources and are involved in soil stabilization and fertility, as they prevent erosion by water and wind, fix atmospheric C and N and contribute large amounts of C to soil. Their contribution to the C balance as photosynthetically active surfaces in arid and semiarid regions is receiving growing attention. However, very few studies have explicitly evaluated their contribution to organic carbon (OC) lost from runoff and erosion, which is necessary to ascertain the role of biocrusts in the ecosystem C balance. Furthermore, biocrusts are not resilient to physical disturbances, which generally cause the loss of the biocrust and thus, an increase in runoff and erosion, dust emissions, and sediment and nutrient losses. The aim of this study was to find out the influence of biocrusts and their removal on dissolved and sediment organic carbon losses. One-hour extreme rainfall simulations (50 mm h -1 ) were performed on small plots set up on physical soil crusts and three types of biocrusts, representing a development gradient, and also on plots where these crusts were removed from. Runoff and erosion rates, dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and organic carbon bonded to sediments (S d OC) were measured during the simulated rain. Our results showed different S d OC and DOC for the different biocrusts and also that the presence of biocrusts substantially decreased total organic carbon (TOC) (average 1.80±1.86 g m -2 ) compared to physical soil crusts (7.83±3.27 g m -2 ). Within biocrusts, TOC losses decreased as biocrusts developed, and erosion rates were lower. Thus, erosion drove TOC losses while no significant direct relationships were found between TOC losses and runoff. In both physical crusts and biocrusts, DOC and S d OC concentrations were higher during the first minutes after runoff began and decreased over time as nutrient-enriched fine particles were washed away by runoff water. Crust removal caused a strong increase in water erosion and TOC losses. The strongest impacts on TOC losses after crust removal occurred on the lichen plots, due to the increased erosion when they were removed. DOC concentration was higher in biocrust-removed soils than in intact biocrusts, probably because OC is more strongly retained by BSC structures, but easily blown away in soils devoid of them. However, S d OC concentration was higher in intact than removed biocrusts associated with greater OC content in the top crust than in the soil once the crust is scraped off. Consequently, the loss of biocrusts leads to OC impoverishment of nutrient-limited interplant spaces in arid and semiarid areas and the reduction of soil OC heterogeneity, essential for vegetation productivity and functioning of this type of ecosystems.

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Section: Dynamics Of Oc Losses In Biocrustssupporting

confidence: 84%

Section: Materials and Methods Study Sitementioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Organic Carbon Dynamics After Crust Removalmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Dynamics of organic carbon losses by water erosion after biocrust removal

Cantón

Román

Chamizo

et al. 2014

Journal of Hydrology and Hydromechanics

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“…We found increases in the abundance of species such as D. diacapsis, S. lentigera, F. subbracteata and P. decipiens in all treatments in the Bare plots. This suggests that these species may be some of the first colonizing species after disturbance situations or in natural conditions [75,91]. Overall, BSC richness and diversity, but not evenness, decreased with warming.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Warming reduces the growth and diversity of biological soil crusts in a semi-arid environment: implications for ecosystem structure and functioning

Escolar

Martínez

Bowker

et al. 2012

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

133

136

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Biological soil crusts (BSCs) are key biotic components of dryland ecosystems worldwide that control many functional processes, including carbon and nitrogen cycling, soil stabilization and infiltration. Regardless of their ecological importance and prevalence in drylands, very few studies have explicitly evaluated how climate change will affect the structure and composition of BSCs, and the functioning of their constituents. Using a manipulative experiment conducted over 3 years in a semi-arid site from central Spain, we evaluated how the composition, structure and performance of lichen-dominated BSCs respond to a 2.48C increase in temperature, and to an approximately 30 per cent reduction of total annual rainfall. In areas with well-developed BSCs, warming promoted a significant decrease in the richness and diversity of the whole BSC community. This was accompanied by important compositional changes, as the cover of lichens suffered a substantial decrease with warming (from 70 to 40% on average), while that of mosses increased slightly (from 0.3 to 7% on average). The physiological performance of the BSC community, evaluated using chlorophyll fluorescence, increased with warming during the first year of the experiment, but did not respond to rainfall reduction. Our results indicate that ongoing climate change will strongly affect the diversity and composition of BSC communities, as well as their recovery after disturbances. The expected changes in richness and composition under warming could reduce or even reverse the positive effects of BSCs on important soil processes. Thus, these changes are likely to promote an overall reduction in ecosystem processes that sustain and control nutrient cycling, soil stabilization and water dynamics.

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“…Biocrusts are pioneers (Lazaro et al 2008), can be used to restore/stabilise soil (Bowker 2007) and have indirect stabilisation effects by facilitating plant growth by improving soil fertility (Pendleton et al 2003). In the Iberian semiarid southeast, biocrusts are often dominated by terricolous lichens or by cyanobacteria and can locally cover large areas (Lázaro et al 2000), constituting a natural stabilisation mechanism (Alexander et al 1994;Lázaro et al 2008) and are widespread on undisturbed sites (Lázaro et al 2008). Some studies have found that biocrusts increase infiltration (Eldridge 1993;Pérez 1997), runoff (Bromley et al 1997;Eldridge et al 2000) or are neutral .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Lázaro

Mora

2014

Biologia

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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.

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The influence of competition between lichen colonization and erosion on the evolution of soil surfaces in the Tabernas badlands (SE Spain) and its landscape effects

Cited by 138 publications

References 45 publications

Dynamics of organic carbon losses by water erosion after biocrust removal

Dynamics of organic carbon losses by water erosion after biocrust removal

Warming reduces the growth and diversity of biological soil crusts in a semi-arid environment: implications for ecosystem structure and functioning

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

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