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Wang Y, Xiao B, Wang W, Kidron GJ. Interactions between biocrusts and herbaceous communities are divergent in dry and wet semiarid ecosystems. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2024; 941:173759. [PMID: 38844240 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.173759] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/23/2024] [Revised: 05/30/2024] [Accepted: 06/02/2024] [Indexed: 06/10/2024]
Abstract
Biocrusts are a prevalent form of living cover in worldwide drylands, and their presence are intimately associated with herbaceous community, forming a spatially mosaic distribution pattern in dryland ecosystems. The role of biocrusts as modulators of herbaceous community assembly is extensively studied, whereas, less is known whether their interactions are permanent or changeable with various environmental conditions. This study conducted a field survey of herbaceous community accompanied by three types of biocrusts (cyanobacterial, cyanobacterial-moss mixed, and moss crusts) in two contrasting (dry and wet) semiarid climate regions in the Chinese Loess Plateau, to explore whether or not climatic aridity gradient affects the interactions between biocrusts and herbaceous community. Our results showed that in dry semiarid climate, the biomass, species richness, and diversity of herbaceous community from biocrust plots were 89 %, 179 %, and 52 % higher than that from the uncrusted plots, respectively, while in wet semiarid climate, those herbaceous community indices from biocrust plots were 68 %, 43 %, and 23 % lower than that from the uncrusted plots, respectively. The impacts of biocrusts on herbaceous community were highly dependent on the types and coverage of biocrusts. Regardless of aridity gradient, the richness and diversity of herbaceous community were the lowest in the moss-covered plots, followed by the cyanobacteria-covered plots and the plots with a mixed cyanobacteria and moss population. Along with increasing biocrust coverage, the species richness and diversity of herbaceous plants initially increased and then decreased in dry semiarid climate, while in wet semiarid climate they decreased linearly with biocrust coverage. Structural equation modeling revealed that the factors of biocrust types and coverage affected herbaceous community indirectly through soil properties in dry semiarid climate, whereas in wet semiarid climate they directly affected herbaceous community through biotic interactions. Together, our findings indicated that cyanobacterial and moss biocrusts facilitate the development of herbaceous community in dry semiarid climate by increasing soil stability and nutrient levels, but in wet semiarid climate they restrict herbaceous plant growth through competing niche space. These results highlight the divergent relationships between biocrusts and herbaceous community across aridity gradient in dryland ecosystems, and this knowledge may be critically important in light of the projected global climate change which is going to change the aridity of global drylands.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yanfeng Wang
- Key Laboratory of Desert and Desertification, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China; State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Water Resources, Yangling 712100, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
| | - Bo Xiao
- Key Laboratory of Arable Land Conservation in North China, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, College of Land Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China; State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Water Resources, Yangling 712100, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
| | - Wanfu Wang
- Key Laboratory of Desert and Desertification, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
| | - Giora J Kidron
- Institute of Earth Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Givat Ram Campus, Jerusalem 91904, Israel
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Schultz NL, Sluiter IRK, Allen GG, Machado-de-Lima NM, Muñoz-Rojas M. Biocrust Amendments to Topsoils Facilitate Biocrust Restoration in a Post-mining Arid Environment. Front Microbiol 2022; 13:882673. [PMID: 35958145 PMCID: PMC9360975 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.882673] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/24/2022] [Accepted: 06/21/2022] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Soil cryptogamic biocrusts provide many ecological functions in arid zone ecosystems, though their natural reestablishment in disturbed areas is slow. Accelerating reestablishment of biocrusts may facilitate the establishment of vascular plant communities within the timeframes of restoration targets (typically 5–15 years). One technique is to inoculate the soil surface using slurries of biocrust material harvested from another site. However, this is destructive to donor sites, and hence the potential to dilute slurries will govern the feasibility of this practice at large spatial scales. We conducted a replicated experiment on a disturbed mine site to test the individual and combined effects of two strategies for accelerating soil cryptogamic biocrust reestablishment: (1) slurry inoculation using biocrust material harvested from native vegetation; and (2) the use of psyllium husk powder as a source of mucilage to bind the soil surface, and to potentially provide a more cohesive substrate for biocrust development. The experiment comprised 90 experimental plots across six treatments, including different dilutions of the biocrust slurries and treatments with and without psyllium. Over 20 months, the reestablishing crust was dominated by cyanobacteria (including Tolypothrix distorta and Oculatella atacamensis), and these established more rapidly in the inoculated treatments than in the control treatments. The inoculated treatments also maintained this cover of cyanobacteria better through prolonged adverse conditions. The dilute biocrust slurry, at 1:100 of the biocrust in the remnant vegetation, performed as well as the 1:10 slurry, suggesting that strong dilution of biocrust slurry may improve the feasibility of using this technique at larger spatial scales. Psyllium husk powder did not improve biocrust development but helped to maintain a soil physical crust through hot, dry, and windy conditions, and so the potential longer-term advantages of psyllium need to be tested.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nick L. Schultz
- The Future Regions Research Centre, Federation University Australia, Ballarat, VIC, Australia
- *Correspondence: Nick L. Schultz,
| | - Ian R. K. Sluiter
- School of Geography Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia
- Ogyris Ecological Research, Birdwoodton, VIC, Australia
| | | | - Nathali M. Machado-de-Lima
- School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Centre for Ecosystem Science, University of New South Wales Sydney, Kensington, NSW, Australia
| | - Miriam Muñoz-Rojas
- School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Centre for Ecosystem Science, University of New South Wales Sydney, Kensington, NSW, Australia
- Department of Plant Biology and Ecology, University of Seville, Seville, Spain
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Xiao J, Lan S, Zhang Z, Yang L, Qian L, Xia L, Song S, Farías ME, Torres RM, Wu L. Physical Disturbance Reduces Cyanobacterial Relative Abundance and Substrate Metabolism Potential of Biological Soil Crusts on a Gold Mine Tailing of Central China. Front Microbiol 2022; 13:811039. [PMID: 35464943 PMCID: PMC9019783 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.811039] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/08/2021] [Accepted: 02/21/2022] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
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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Affiliation(s)
- Jingshang Xiao
- School of Resources and Environmental Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Shubin Lan
- Key Laboratory of Algal Biology, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China
| | - Zulin Zhang
- School of Resources and Environmental Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China.,The James Hutton Institute, Aberdeen, United Kingdom
| | - Lie Yang
- School of Resources and Environmental Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Long Qian
- School of Resources and Environmental Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Ling Xia
- School of Resources and Environmental Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - Shaoxian Song
- School of Resources and Environmental Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China
| | - María E Farías
- Laboratorio de Investigaciones Microbiológicas de Lagunas Andinas (LIMLA), Planta Piloto de Procesos Industriales Microbiológicos (PROIMI), Centro Científico Tecnológico (CCT), Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina
| | - Rosa María Torres
- CETMIC- CONICET- CCT La Plata, Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas de la Provincia de Buenos Aires (CICBA), La Plata, Argentina
| | - Li Wu
- School of Resources and Environmental Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China
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Young KE, Reed SC, Ferrenberg S, Faist A, Winkler DE, Cort C, Darrouzet-Nardi A. Incorporating Biogeochemistry into Dryland Restoration. Bioscience 2021; 71:907-917. [PMID: 34483747 DOI: 10.1093/biosci/biab043] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Dryland degradation is a persistent and accelerating global problem. Although the mechanisms initiating and maintaining dryland degradation are largely understood, returning productivity and function through ecological restoration remains difficult. Water limitation commonly drives slow recovery rates within drylands; however, the altered biogeochemical cycles that accompany degradation also play key roles in limiting restoration outcomes. Addressing biogeochemical changes and resource limitations may help improve restoration efforts within this difficult-to-restore biome. In the present article, we present a synthesis of restoration literature that identifies multiple ways biogeochemical understandings might augment dryland restoration outcomes, including timing restoration around resource cycling and uptake, connecting heterogeneous landscapes, manipulating resource pools, and using organismal functional traits to a restoration advantage. We conclude by suggesting ways to incorporate biogeochemistry into existing restoration frameworks and discuss research directions that may help improve restoration outcomes in the world's highly altered dryland landscapes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kristina E Young
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Texas, El Paso, El Paso, Texas, United States
| | - Sasha C Reed
- US Geological Survey, Southwest Biological Science Center, Moab, Utah, United States
| | - Scott Ferrenberg
- Department of Biology, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico, United States
| | - Akasha Faist
- Department of Animal and Range Sciences, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico, United States
| | - Daniel E Winkler
- US Geological Survey, Southwest Biological Science Center, Moab, Utah, United States
| | - Catherine Cort
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Texas, El Paso, El Paso, Texas, United States
| | - Anthony Darrouzet-Nardi
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Texas, El Paso, El Paso, Texas, United States
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Antoninka A, Faist A, Rodriguez‐Caballero E, Young KE, Chaudhary VB, Condon LA, Pyke DA. Biological soil crusts in ecological restoration: emerging research and perspectives. Restor Ecol 2020. [DOI: 10.1111/rec.13201] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/24/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Anita Antoninka
- School of Forestry Northern Arizona University 200 E Pine Knoll Drive, Flagstaff AZ 86011 U.S.A
| | - Akasha Faist
- Department of Animal and Range Sciences New Mexico State University Box 30003 MSC 3‐I, Las Cruces NM 88003 U.S.A
| | - Emilio Rodriguez‐Caballero
- Centro de Investigación de Colecciones Científicas de la Universidad de Almería (CECOUAL) University of Almería 04120 Almería Spain
| | - Kristina E. Young
- Department of Biological Sciences University of Texas at El Paso 500 West University Avenue, El Paso TX 79968 U.S.A
| | - V. Bala Chaudhary
- Department of Environmental Science and Studies DePaul University 1110 West Belden Avenue, Chicago IL 60614 U.S.A
| | - Lea A. Condon
- U.S. Geological Survey Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center Corvallis OR 97331 U.S.A
| | - David A. Pyke
- U.S. Geological Survey Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center Corvallis OR 97331 U.S.A
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Kidron GJ, Xiao B, Benenson I. Data variability or paradigm shift? Slow versus fast recovery of biological soil crusts-a review. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2020; 721:137683. [PMID: 32197290 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.137683] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/25/2019] [Revised: 02/27/2020] [Accepted: 03/01/2020] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Biological soil crusts, known also as biocrusts, provide valuable ecosystem services, especially in arid and semiarid regions. They may affect geomorphological (stability), hydrological (infiltration, evaporation), biochemical (carbon and nitrogen fixation) and ecological (germination and growth of vascular plants) processes, and their disturbance may have important ecological consequences. The common view, as reflected in hundreds of papers, regards biocrusts as having extremely slow recovery with characteristic time of up to hundreds and even thousands of years. Long recovery time implies that disturbance or climate change may have severe long-lasting consequences even once the conditions return to their initial state, triggering ample efforts to hasten biocrust recovery by inoculation. We critically analyze available estimates of the crust recovery time and present systematic measurements and theoretical considerations that attest to relatively rapid recovery of the crusts. We conclude that the likely recovery time of cyanobacterial crusts is 5-10 years, while that of lichen- and moss-dominated crusts is 10-20 years. Subsequently, costly and potentially negative effects to the ecosystem during inoculation should be weighed against the fast natural recovery of the biocrusts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Giora J Kidron
- Institute of Earth Sciences, The Hebrew University, Givat Ram Campus, Jerusalem 91904, Israel.
| | - Bo Xiao
- College of Land Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China.
| | - Itzhak Benenson
- Department of Geography and Human Environment, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel.
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Faist AM, Antoninka AJ, Belnap J, Bowker MA, Duniway MC, Garcia‐Pichel F, Nelson C, Reed SC, Giraldo‐Silva A, Velasco‐Ayuso S, Barger NN. Inoculation and habitat amelioration efforts in biological soil crust recovery vary by desert and soil texture. Restor Ecol 2020. [DOI: 10.1111/rec.13087] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Akasha M. Faist
- Department of Animal and Range SciencesNew Mexico State University Las Cruces NM 88003 U.S.A
| | | | - Jayne Belnap
- Southwest Biological Science CenterU.S. Geological Survey Moab UT 84532 U.S.A
| | - Matthew A. Bowker
- School of ForestryNorthern Arizona University Flagstaff AZ 86011 U.S.A
| | - Michael C. Duniway
- Southwest Biological Science CenterU.S. Geological Survey Moab UT 84532 U.S.A
| | - Ferran Garcia‐Pichel
- School of Life Sciences and Center for Fundamental and Applied Microbiomics, Biodesign InstituteArizona State University Tempe AZ 85281 U.S.A
| | - Corey Nelson
- School of Life Sciences and Center for Fundamental and Applied Microbiomics, Biodesign InstituteArizona State University Tempe AZ 85281 U.S.A
| | - Sasha C. Reed
- Southwest Biological Science CenterU.S. Geological Survey Moab UT 84532 U.S.A
| | - Ana Giraldo‐Silva
- School of Life Sciences and Center for Fundamental and Applied Microbiomics, Biodesign InstituteArizona State University Tempe AZ 85281 U.S.A
| | - Sergio Velasco‐Ayuso
- Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura, Facultad de AgronomíaUniversidad de Buenos Aires, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires Buenos Aires C1417DSE Argentina
| | - Nichole N. Barger
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary BiologyUniversity of Colorado Boulder CO 80309 U.S.A
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