scispace - formally typeset
Open Access

Decoupling of soil nutrient cycles as a function of

Reads0
Chats0
TLDR
In this paper, the authors evaluate how aridity affects the balance between carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) in soils collected from 224 dryland sites from all continents except Antarctica and find a negative effect of aridity on the concentration of soil organic C and total N, but a positive effect on inorganic P.
Abstract
The biogeochemical cycles of carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) are interlinked by primary production, respiration and decomposition in terrestrial ecosystems. It has been suggested that the C, N and P cycles could become uncoupled under rapid climate change because of the different degrees of control exerted on the supply of these elements by biological and geochemical processes. Climatic controls on biogeochemical cycles are particularly relevant in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid ecosystems (drylands) because their biological activity is mainly driven by water availability. The increase in aridity predicted for the twenty-first century in many drylands worldwide may therefore threaten the balance between these cycles, differentially affecting the availability of essential nutrients. Here we evaluate how aridity affects the balance between C, N and P in soils collected from 224 dryland sites from all continents except Antarctica. We find a negative effect of aridity on the concentration of soil organic C and total N, but a positive effect on the concentration of inorganic P. Aridity is negatively related to plant cover, which may favour the dominance of physical processes such as rock weathering, a major source of P to ecosystems, over biological processes that provide more C and N, such as litter decomposition. Our findings suggest that any predicted increase in aridity with climate change will probably reduce the concentrations of N and C in global drylands, but increase that of P. These changes would uncouple the C, N and P cycles in drylands and could negatively affect the provision of key services provided by these ecosystems.

read more

Citations
More filters
DissertationDOI

Exploring the possibilities of parsimonious nitrogen modelling in different ecosystems

TL;DR: In this paper, two parsimonious nitrogen models have been developed and implemented in two different data availability scenarios, one in a semi-arid natural forest ecosystem and the other in an anthropogenic agricultural ecosystem.
Dissertation

Modelling of the topsoil organic carbon content by analysing the potential of spectroscopic techniques for digital soil mapping

TL;DR: In this article, the authors explored the capacity of spectroscopy for map soil organic carbon content at regional scale using topsoil samples from Galicia (NW-Spain) and developed a spatially non-stationary approach that allows mapping soil organic content and also identifying the factors more relevant for its accumulation in Europe.
References
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI

Nitrogen pools in soil covered by biological soil crusts of different successional stages in a temperate desert in Central Asia

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explored the dynamics of different N forms in response to seasonal microclimate variations in BSCs, especially across both the growing season and the snow-covered season (winter).
Journal ArticleDOI

Potential of crop-livestock integration to enhance carbon sequestration and agroecosystem functioning in semi-arid croplands

TL;DR: In this article, the characteristics of grazing-based Integrated Crop-Livestock (ICL) systems and how various associated management practices may interplay with semi-arid agroecological and biogeochemical dynamics to influence soil microbial ecology and organic carbon accumulation and stabilization.
Journal ArticleDOI

Increasing aridity affects soil archaeal communities by mediating soil niches in semi-arid regions.

TL;DR: It is suggested that soil salinization and N-losses might be important mechanisms underlying the increasing aridity-induced alterations in archaeal communities, and the importance of soil niches in mediating the indirect impacts of increasingAridity on archaea is highlighted.
Journal ArticleDOI

Temperature-Dependent Species Interactions Shape Priority Effects and the Persistence of Unequal Competitors.

TL;DR: Warming increased the impact of aphids on the quantity and quality of milkweed, which amplified the importance of priority effects by increasing the competitive exclusion of the inferior competitor when it arrived late.
Related Papers (5)