Biological soil crust development affects physicochemical characteristics of soil surface in semiarid ecosystems
Ficheros
Identificadores
Compartir
Metadatos
Mostrar el registro completo del ítemAutor
Cantón Castilla, María Yolanda; Chamizo De La Piedra, Sonia; Miralles Mellado, Isabel; Domingo Poveda, FranciscoFecha
2012-07-19Resumen
Water and nutrients are scarce resources in arid and semiarid ecosystems. In these regions, biological soil crusts (BSCs) occupy a large part of the soil surface in the open spaces surrounding patches of vegetation. BSCs affect physicochemical soil properties, such as aggregate stability, water retention, organic carbon (OC) and nitrogen (N) content, associated with primary ecosystem processes like water availability and soil fertility. However, the way BSCs modify soil surface and subsurface properties greatly depends on the type of BSC. We hypothesised that physicochemical properties of soil crusts and of their underlying soils would improve with crust development stage. Physicochemical properties of various types of soil crusts (physical crusts and several BSC development stages) and of the underlying soil (soil layers 0–1 cm and 1–5 cm underneath the crusts) in two semiarid areas in SE Spain were analysed. The properties that differed significantly depending on crust development st...
Palabra/s clave
Physical crust
Cyanobacteria
Lichen
Moss
Aggregate stability
Water content
Organic carbon
Nitrogen