Biological soil crusts modulate nitrogen availability in semi-arid ecosystems: insights from a Mediterranean grassland

2010 ◽  
Vol 333 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 21-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea P. Castillo-Monroy ◽  
Fernando T. Maestre ◽  
Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo ◽  
Antonio Gallardo
Keyword(s):  
Nitrogen Availability ◽  
Biological Soil Crusts ◽  
Arid Ecosystems ◽  
Soil Crusts ◽  
Semi Arid

scholarly journals Ecology and functional roles of biological soil crusts in semi-arid ecosystems of Spain

2011 ◽  
Vol 75 (12) ◽  
pp. 1282-1291 ◽  
Author(s):  
F.T. Maestre ◽  
M.A. Bowker ◽  
Y. Cantón ◽  
A.P. Castillo-Monroy ◽  
J. Cortina ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Biological Soil Crusts ◽  
Arid Ecosystems ◽  
Functional Roles ◽  
Soil Crusts ◽  
Semi Arid

scholarly journals Biological soil crusts inhibit seed germination in a temperate pine barren ecosystem

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica A. Gilbert ◽  
Jeffrey D. Corbin
Keyword(s):  
Seed Germination ◽  
Early Life History ◽  
Biological Soil Crusts ◽  
Arid Ecosystems ◽  
Lupinus Perennis ◽  
Life History Stages ◽  
Soil Crusts ◽  
Lespedeza Capitata ◽  
Total Seed ◽  
Herbaceous Perennial

Abstract Biological soil crusts (BSCs) are known to affect plants’ germination and seedling establishment in arid ecosystems, but their ecological role in more mesic climates is not so well-known. We tested the effects of moss-crusted versus uncrusted soils on seed germination dynamics in a temperate pine barren ecosystem. We conducted a 35-day laboratory assay of seed germination on moss-crusted soils versus uncrusted soils from the Albany (NY) Pine Bush Preserve. We tested total seed germination and the number of days to 50% of total germination (T50) of two herbaceous perennial forb species in each soil type. Three and five times more seeds germinated on uncrusted soil than on crusted soil for bush clover (Lespedeza capitata) and wild lupine (Lupinus perennis), respectively. Seeds of both species also germinated approximately 10 days earlier on uncrusted soil than on crusted soil. This study, and others in similar habitats, show that BSCs in mesic climates can influence germination and other early life-history stages of plants. We hope that further study of the interactions between BSCs and vascular plants in mesic climates will contribute to our understanding of the ecology of BSCs outside the arid and semiarid climates where they are more extensively studied.

scholarly journals A New Application of Random Forest Algorithm to Estimate Coverage of Moss-Dominated Biological Soil Crusts in Semi-Arid Mu Us Sandy Land, China

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 1286 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiang Chen ◽  
Tao Wang ◽  
Shulin Liu ◽  
Fei Peng ◽  
Atsushi Tsunekawa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Random Forest ◽  
Biological Soil Crusts ◽  
Data Availability ◽  
Sandy Land ◽  
Desert Ecosystems ◽  
Mu Us Sandy Land ◽  
Soil Crusts ◽  
Band Combinations ◽  
Semi Arid ◽  
Sentinel 2

Biological soil crusts (BSCs) play an essential role in desert ecosystems. Knowledge of the distribution and disappearance of BSCs is vital for the management of ecosystems and for desertification researches. However, the major remote sensing approaches used to extract BSCs are multispectral indices, which lack accuracy, and hyperspectral indices, which have lower data availability and require a higher computational effort. This study employs random forest (RF) models to optimize the extraction of BSCs using band combinations similar to the two multispectral BSC indices (Crust Index-CI; Biological Soil Crust Index-BSCI), but covering all possible band combinations. Simulated multispectral datasets resampled from in-situ hyperspectral data were used to extract BSC information. Multispectral datasets (Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2 datasets) were then used to detect BSC coverage in Mu Us Sandy Land, located in northern China, where BSCs dominated by moss are widely distributed. The results show that (i) the spectral curves of moss-dominated BSCs are different from those of other typical land surfaces, (ii) the BSC coverage can be predicted using the simulated multispectral data (mean square error (MSE) < 0.01), (iii) Sentinel-2 satellite datasets with CI-based band combinations provided a reliable RF model for detecting moss-dominated BSCs (10-fold validation, R2 = 0.947; ground validation, R2 = 0.906). In conclusion, application of the RF algorithm to the Sentinel-2 dataset can precisely and effectively map BSCs dominated by moss. This new application can be used as a theoretical basis for detecting BSCs in other arid and semi-arid lands within desert ecosystems.

Biological soil crusts increase the resistance of soil nitrogen dynamics to changes in temperatures in a semi-arid ecosystem

2012 ◽  
Vol 366 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 35-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo ◽  
Fernando T. Maestre ◽  
Antonio Gallardo
Keyword(s):  
Soil Nitrogen ◽  
Biological Soil Crusts ◽  
Nitrogen Dynamics ◽  
Arid Ecosystem ◽  
Soil Crusts ◽  
Soil Nitrogen Dynamics ◽  
Semi Arid

Disturbance of the biological soil crusts and performance of Stipa tenacissima in a semi-arid Mediterranean steppe

2010 ◽  
Vol 334 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 311-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jordi Cortina ◽  
Noelia Martín ◽  
Fernando T. Maestre ◽  
Susana Bautista
Keyword(s):  
Biological Soil Crusts ◽  
Stipa Tenacissima ◽  
Soil Crusts ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Semi Arid

Ecophysiological traits of various genotypes of a green key alga in biological soil crusts from the semi-arid Colorado Plateau, USA

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (6) ◽  
pp. 2911-2923 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antje Donner ◽  
David Ryšánek ◽  
Tatiana Mikhailyuk ◽  
Ulf Karsten
Keyword(s):  
Colorado Plateau ◽  
Biological Soil Crusts ◽  
Ecophysiological Traits ◽  
Soil Crusts ◽  
Semi Arid

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

2012 ◽  
Vol 367 (1606) ◽  
pp. 3087-3099 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristina Escolar ◽  
Isabel Martínez ◽  
Matthew A. Bowker ◽  
Fernando T. Maestre
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Soil Stabilization ◽  
Arid Environment ◽  
Biological Soil Crusts ◽  
Water Dynamics ◽  
Annual Rainfall ◽  
Ecosystem Structure ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Soil Crusts ◽  
Semi Arid

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 2.4°C 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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