RT Journal Article
T1 Biocrusts control the nitrogen dynamics and microbial functional diversity of semi-arid soils in response to nutrient additions
A1 Delgado Baquerizo, Manuel
A1 Morillas Viñuales, Lourdes
A1 Carmona Maestre, Fernando
A1 Gallardo, Antonio
K1 Biocrusts
K1 Nitrogen dynamics
K1 Semi-arid soils
AB AimsHuman activities are causing imbalances in the nutrient cycles in natural ecosystems. However, we have limited knowledge of how these changes will affect the soil microbial functional diversity and the nitrogen (N) cycle in drylands, the biggest biome on Earth. Communities dominated by lichens, mosses and cyanobacteria (biocrusts) influence multiple processes from the N cycle such as N fixation and mineralization rates. We evaluated how biocrusts modulate the effects of different N, carbon (C) and phosphorus (P) additions on theN availability, the dominance of different available N forms and the microbial functional diversity in dryland soils.MethodsSoil samples from bare ground (BG) and biocrust-dominated areas were gathered from the center of Spain and incubated during seven or 21 days under different combinations of N, C and P additions (N, C, P, N + C, N + P, P + C, and C + N + P).ResultsThe relative dominance of dissolved organic N (DON) and the microbial functional diversity were higher in biocrust than in BG microsites when C or P were added. Changes in the C to N ratio, more than N availability, seem to modulate N transformation processes in the soils studied. In general, biocrusts increased the resilience to N impacts (N, C + N, N + P, C + N + P) of the total available N, ammonium, nitrate and DON when C was present.ConclusionsOur results suggest that biocrusts may buffer the effects of changes in nutrient ratios on microbial functional diversity and DON dominance in dryland soils. Thus, these organisms may have an important role in increasing the resilience of the N cycle to imbalances in C, N and P derived from human activities.
PB Springer
YR 2013
FD 2013
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10433/22889
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10433/22889
LA en
NO Plant Soil 372, 643–654 (2013)
NO European Research Council (ERC) under the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013)/ERC Grant agreement n° 242658 (BIOCOM) and by the Ministry of Science and Innovation of the Spanish Government, Grant n° CGL2010-21381.
NO Departamento de Sistemas Físicos, Químicos y Naturales
DS RIO
RD May 30, 2026