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Biocrusts in the Context of Global Change

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Biological Soil Crusts: An Organizing Principle in Drylands

Part of the book series: Ecological Studies ((ECOLSTUD,volume 226))

Abstract

A wide range of studies show global environmental change will profoundly affect the structure, function, and dynamics of terrestrial ecosystems. The research synthesized here underscores that biocrust communities are also likely to respond significantly to global change drivers, with a large potential for modification to their abundance, composition, and function. We examine how elevated atmospheric CO2 concentrations, climate change (increased temperature and altered precipitation), and nitrogen deposition affect biocrusts and the ecosystems they inhabit. We integrate experimental and observational data, as well as physiological, community ecology, and biogeochemical perspectives. Taken together, these data highlight the potential for biocrust organisms to respond dramatically to environmental change and show how changes to biocrust community composition translate into effects on ecosystem function (e.g., carbon and nutrient cycling, soil stability, energy balance). Due to the importance of biocrusts in regulating dryland ecosystem processes and the potential for large modifications to biocrust communities, an improved understanding and predictive capacity regarding biocrust responses to environmental change are of scientific and societal relevance.

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Acknowledgments

SCR and JB were supported by the USGS Ecosystems Mission Area. A significant portion of the studies of biocrust bacterial communities under warming, altered precipitation, and elevated CO2 conditions described here was supported by the US Department of Energy Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research Terrestrial Ecosystem Sciences Program grants to JB, CRK, and SCR (e.g., Award Number DE-SC-0008168), and research grants to CRK from the Climate and Environmental and the Biological and System Science Divisions. FTM was supported by the European Research Council under the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013)/ERC Grant agreement 242658 (BIOCOM), and LGS was supported by the Spanish grant CTM2012-3822-C01-02 during the writing of this chapter. We are grateful to Burkhard Büdel and Bettina Weber for their insightful comments on previous drafts of this chapter and to E. Geiger, L. Allred, and M. Moats for their help with chapter preparation. Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the US government.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Southwest Biological Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey, 2290 S. West Resource Blvd., Moab, UT, 84532, USA

    Sasha C. Reed & Jayne Belnap

  2. Area de Biodiversidad y Conservacion, Departamento de Biología y Geología, Física y Química Inorgánica, ESCET, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, C/ Tulipaán s/n, 28933, Móstoles, Spain

    Fernando T. Maestre

  3. Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith, NSW, 2751, Australia

    Raúl Ochoa-Hueso

  4. Bioscience Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Mail Stop m888, Los Alamos, NM, 87545, USA

    Cheryl R. Kuske

  5. Biological Sciences Department, University of Texas at El Paso, 500 West University Ave., El Paso, TX, 79968, USA

    Anthony Darrouzet-Nardi

  6. USDA-ARS, Plant Genetics Research Unit, University of Missouri, 206 Curtis Hall, Columbia, MO, 65211, USA

    Mel Oliver

  7. Department of Biology, University of North Dakota, 10 Cornell Street, Stop 9019, Grand Forks, ND, 58202-9019, USA

    Brian Darby

  8. Departamento de Biologia Vegetal II, Facultad de Farmacia, Universidad Complutense, 28040, Madrid, Spain

    Leopoldo G. Sancho

  9. Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, 167A Castetter Hall, Albuquerque, NM, 87131, USA

    Robert L. Sinsabaugh

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  1. Sasha C. Reed
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Correspondence to Sasha C. Reed .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Multiphase Chemistry Department, Max Plank Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany

    Bettina Weber

  2. Plant Ecology and Systematics, Department of Biology, University of Kaiserslautern, Kaiserslautern, Germany

    Burkhard Büdel

  3. Southwest Biological Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey, Moab, Utah, USA

    Jayne Belnap

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Reed, S.C. et al. (2016). Biocrusts in the Context of Global Change. In: Weber, B., Büdel, B., Belnap, J. (eds) Biological Soil Crusts: An Organizing Principle in Drylands. Ecological Studies, vol 226. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30214-0_22

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