Delgado-Baquerizo, Manuel

Maestre, Fernando

Garcia-Palacios, Pablo

Berdugo, Miguel

Valencia, Enrique

Escolar, Cristina

Arrendondo, Tulio

Barraza-Zepeda, Claudia

Bran, Donaldo

Carreira, Jose

Chaieb, Mohamed

Conceicao, Abel

Gallardo, Antonio

Derak, Mchich

Eldridge, David

Escudero, Adrian

Espinosa, Carlos

Gaitan, Juan

Gatica, M. Gabriel

Gomez-Gonzalez, Susana

Guzman, Elizabeth

Gutierrez, Julio

Florentino, Adraiana

Bowker, Matthew

Hepper, Estela

Hernandez, Rosa

Huber-Sannwald, Elisabeth

Jankju, Mohammed

Liu, Jushan

Mau, Rebecca

Miriti, Maria

Monerris, Jorge

Naseri, Kamal

Noumi, Zouhaier

Wallenstein, Matthew

Polo, Vicente

Prina, Anibal

Pucheta, Eduardo

Ramirez, Elizabeth

Ramirez-Collantes, David

Romao, Roberto

Tighe, Matthew

Torres, Duilio

Torres-Diaz, Cristian

Ungar, Eugene

Quero, Jose

Val, James

Wamiti, Wanyoike

Wang, Deli

Zaady, Eli

Ochoa, Victoria

Gozalo, Beatriz

Garcia-Gomez, Miguel

Soliveres, Santiago

2013

The biogeochemical cycles of carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) are interlinked by primary production, respiration and decomposition in terrestrial ecosystems. It has been suggested that the C, N and P cycles could become uncoupled under rapid climate change because of the different degrees of control exerted on the supply of these elements by biological and geochemical processes. Climatic controls on biogeochemical cycles are particularly relevant in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid ecosystems (drylands) because their biological activity is mainly driven by water availability. The increase in aridity predicted for the twenty-first century in many drylands worldwide may therefore threaten the balance between these cycles, differentially affecting the availability of essential nutrients. Here we evaluate how aridity affects the balance between C, N and P in soils collected from 224 dryland sites from all continents except Antarctica. We find a negative effect of aridity on the concentration of soil organic C and total N, but a positive effect on the concentration of inorganic P. Aridity is negatively related to plant cover, which may favour the dominance of physical processes such as rock weathering, a major source of P to ecosystems, over biological processes that provide more C and N, such as litter decomposition. Our findings suggest that any predicted increase in aridity with climate change will probably reduce the concentrations of N and C in global drylands, but increase that of P. These changes would uncouple the C, N and P cycles in drylands and could negatively affect the provision of key services provided by these ecosystems.

Nature, 502(7473), p. 672-676

1476-4687

0028-0836

https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/13973

en

Nature Publishing Group

Decoupling of soil nutrient cycles as a function of aridity in global drylands

Journal Article

Publication