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  3. Human impacts and aridity differentially alter soil N availability in drylands worldwide
 

Human impacts and aridity differentially alter soil N availability in drylands worldwide

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BORIS DOI
10.7892/boris.75869
Date of Publication
January 2016
Publication Type
Article
Division/Institute

Institut für Pflanzen...

Author
Delgado-Baquerizo, Manuel
Maestre, Fernando T.
Gallardo, Antonio
Eldridge, David J.
Soliveres, Santiago
Institut für Pflanzenwissenschaften (IPS)
Bowker, Matthew A.
Prado-Comesaña, Ana
Gaitán, Juan
Quero, José L.
Ochoa, Victoria
Gozalo, Beatriz
García-Gómez, Miguel
García-Palacios, Pablo
Berdugo, Miguel
Valencia, Enrique
Escolar, Cristina
Arredondo, Tulio
Barraza-Zepeda, Claudia
Boeken, Bertrand R.
Bran, Donaldo
Cabrera, Omar
Carreira, José A.
Chaieb, Mohamed
Conceição, Abel A.
Derak, Mchich
Ernst, Ricardo
Espinosa, Carlos I.
Florentino, Adriana
Gatica, Gabriel
Ghiloufi, Wahida
Gómez-González, Susana
Gutiérrez, Julio R.
Hernández, Rosa M.
Huber-Sannwald, Elisabeth
Jankju, Mohammad
Mau, Rebecca L.
Miriti, Maria
Monerris, Jorge
Morici, Ernesto
Muchane, Muchai
Naseri, Kamal
Pucheta, Eduardo
Ramírez, Elizabeth
Ramírez-Collantes, David A.
Romão, Roberto L.
Tighe, Matthew
Torres, Duilio
Torres-Díaz, Cristian
Val, James
Veiga, José P.
Wang, Deli
Yuan, Xia
Zaady, Eli
Subject(s)

500 - Science::580 - ...

Series
Global Ecology and Biogeography
ISSN or ISBN (if monograph)
1466-822X
Publisher
Wiley-Blackwell
Language
English
Publisher DOI
10.1111/geb.12382
Uncontrolled Keywords

Aridity

depolymerization

global change

human impacts

mineralization

N cycle

Description
Aims
Climate and human impacts are changing the nitrogen (N) inputs and losses in terrestrial ecosystems. However, it is largely unknown how these two major drivers of global change will simultaneously influence the N cycle in drylands, the largest terrestrial biome on the planet. We conducted a global observational study to evaluate how aridity and human impacts, together with biotic and abiotic factors, affect key soil variables of the N cycle.

Location
Two hundred and twenty-four dryland sites from all continents except Antarctica widely differing in their environmental conditions and human influence.

Methods
Using a standardized field survey, we measured aridity, human impacts (i.e. proxies of land uses and air pollution), key biophysical variables (i.e. soil pH and texture and total plant cover) and six important variables related to N cycling in soils: total N, organic N, ammonium, nitrate, dissolved organic:inorganic N and N mineralization rates. We used structural equation modelling to assess the direct and indirect effects of aridity, human impacts and key biophysical variables on the N cycle.

Results
Human impacts increased the concentration of total N, while aridity reduced it. The effects of aridity and human impacts on the N cycle were spatially disconnected, which may favour scarcity of N in the most arid areas and promote its accumulation in the least arid areas.

Main conclusions
We found that increasing aridity and anthropogenic pressure are spatially disconnected in drylands. This implies that while places with low aridity and high human impact accumulate N, most arid sites with the lowest human impacts lose N. Our analyses also provide evidence that both increasing aridity and human impacts may enhance the relative dominance of inorganic N in dryland soils, having a negative impact on key functions and services provided by these ecosystems.
Handle
https://boris-portal.unibe.ch/handle/20.500.12422/138044
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File(s)
FileFile TypeFormatSizeLicensePublisher/Copright statementContent
GlobalEcolBiogeogr_25_36.pdftextAdobe PDF769.64 KBpublisherpublished restricted
Delgado-Baquerizo et al. GEB.pdftextAdobe PDF1.08 MBpublisheracceptedOpen
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