Can land degradation drive differences in the C exchange of two similar semiarid ecosystems?
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López Ballesteros, Ana; Oyonarte Gutiérrez, Cecilio; Kowalski, Andrew; Serrano Ortíz, Penélope; Moya, M. Rosario; [et al.]Fecha
2018-01-11Resumen
Currently, drylands occupy more than one-third of the global terrestrial surface and are recognized as areas vulnerable to land degradation. The concept of land degradation stems from the loss of an ecosystem’s biological productivity due to long-term loss of natural vegetation or depletion of soil nutrients. Drylands’ key role in the global carbon (C) balance has been recently demonstrated, but the effects of land degradation on C sequestration by these ecosystems still need to be investigated. In the present study, we compared net C and water vapor fluxes, together with satellite, meteorological and vadose zone (CO2, water content and temperature) measurements, between two nearby (∼ 23 km) experimental sites representing “natural” (i.e., site of reference) and “degraded” grazed semiarid grasslands. We utilized data acquired over 6 years from two eddy covariance stations located in southeastern Spain with highly variable precipitation magnitude and distribution. Results show a striki...
Palabra/s clave
global carbon balance
C and water vapor fluxes
eddy covariance stations