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Disturbance to desert soil ecosystems contributes to dust-mediated impacts at regional scales

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Abstract

This review considers the regional scale of impacts arising from disturbance to desert soil ecosystems. Deserts occupy over one-third of the Earth’s terrestrial surface, and biological soil covers are critical to stabilization of desert soils. Disturbance to these can contribute to massive destabilization and mobilization of dust. This results in dust storms that are transported across inter-continental distances where they have profound negative impacts. Dust deposition at high altitudes causes radiative forcing of snowpack that leads directly to altered hydrological regimes and changes to freshwater biogeochemistry. In marine environments dust deposition impacts phytoplankton diazotrophy, and causes coral reef senescence. Increasingly dust is also recognized as a threat to human health.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Applied Ecology New Zealand, School of Applied Sciences, Auckland University of Technology, Private Bag 92006, Auckland, 1142, New Zealand

    Stephen B. Pointing

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

    Jayne Belnap

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  1. Stephen B. Pointing
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  2. Jayne Belnap
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Correspondence to Stephen B. Pointing or Jayne Belnap.

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Communicated by Guest Editors of S.I.: Biocrust.

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Pointing, S.B., Belnap, J. Disturbance to desert soil ecosystems contributes to dust-mediated impacts at regional scales. Biodivers Conserv 23, 1659–1667 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-014-0690-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-014-0690-x

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