Responses of Biocrust and Associated Soil Bacteria to Novel Climates Are Not Tightly Coupled.

ABSTRACT: Climate change is expanding drylands even as land use practices degrade them. Representing ∼40% of Earth's terrestrial surface, drylands rely on biological soil crusts (biocrusts) for key ecosystem functions including soil stability, biogeochemical cycling, and water capture. Understanding how biocrusts adapt to climate change is critical to understanding how dryland ecosystems will function with altered climate. We investigated the sensitivity of biocrusts to experimentally imposed novel climates to track changes in productivity and stability under both warming and cooling scenarios. We established three common gardens along an elevational-climate gradient on the Colorado Plateau. Mature biocrusts were collected from each site and reciprocally transplanted intact. Over 20 months we monito

SUBMITTER: Antoninka A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9096946 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature