15 documents found, page 1 of 2

Recent land use and land cover pressures on Iberian peatlands

Iberian peatlands have been severely affected by land use and land cover (LULC) changes. Despite these pressures, some peatlands persist in the region, although their susceptibility to LULC change remains poorly understood. This study presents the most detailed and extensive distribution data for Iberian peatlands to date and analyzes the dynamics and drivers of LULC in Iberian peatlands and their surrounding a...

Vulnerability of mineral-associated soil organic carbon to climate across globa...

Mineral-associated organic carbon (MAOC) constitutes a major fraction of global soil carbon and is assumed less sensitive to climate than particulate organic carbon (POC) due to protection by minerals. Despite its importance for long-term carbon storage, the response of MAOC to changing climates in drylands, which cover more than 40% of the global land area, remains unexplored. Here we assess topsoil organic ca...

Unforeseen plant phenotypic diversity in a dry and grazed world

Earth harbours an extraordinary plant phenotypic diversity1 that is at risk from ongoing global changes2,3. However, it remains unknown how increasing aridity and livestock grazing pressure—two major drivers of global change4,5,6—shape the trait covariation that underlies plant phenotypic diversity1,7. Here we assessed how covariation among 20 chemical and morphological traits responds to aridity and grazing pr...

Hotspots of biogeochemical activity linked to aridity and plant traits across g...

Perennial plants create productive and biodiverse hotspots, known as fertile islands, beneath their canopies. These hotspots largely determine the structure and functioning of drylands worldwide. Despite their ubiquity, the factors controlling fertile islands under conditions of contrasting grazing by livestock, the most prevalent land use in drylands, remain virtually unknown. Here we evaluated the relative im...

The effect of tree decline over soil water content largely controls soil respir...

As drought-induced tree defoliation and mortality (i.e. tree decline) in the Mediterranean with ongoing climate change, it is of paramount importance to understand how, why, and when tree decline affects soil respiration (Rs). We carried out a novel study exploring the interacting effects of climatic variability (i.e. season and year) and tree decline on soil water content (SWC), soil temperature (Tsoil), and R...

The global contribution of soil mosses to ecosystem services

Soil mosses are among the most widely distributed organisms on land. Experiments and observations suggest that they contribute to terrestrial soil biodiversity and function, yet their ecological contribution to soil has never been assessed globally under natural conditions. Here we conducted the most comprehensive global standardized field study to quantify how soil mosses influence 8 ecosystem services associa...

Publisher Correction: Soil contamination in nearby natural areas mirrors that i...

Soil contamination in nearby natural areas mirrors that in urban greenspaces wo...

Soil contamination is one of the main threats to ecosystem health and sustainability. Yet little is known about the extent to which soil contaminants differ between urban greenspaces and natural ecosystems. Here we show that urban greenspaces and adjacent natural areas (i.e., natural/semi-natural ecosystems) shared similar levels of multiple soil contaminants (metal(loid)s, pesticides, microplastics, and antibi...

Global hotspots for soil nature conservation

Soils are the foundation of all terrestrial ecosystems1. However, unlike for plants and animals, a global assessment of hotspots for soil nature conservation is still lacking2. This hampers our ability to establish nature conservation priorities for the multiple dimensions that support the soil system: from soil biodiversity to ecosystem services. Here, to identify global hotspots for soil nature conservation, ...

Grazing and ecosystem service delivery in global drylands

Grazing represents the most extensive use of land worldwide. Yet its impacts on ecosystem services remain uncertain because pervasive interactions between grazing pressure, climate, soil properties, and biodiversity may occur but have never been addressed simultaneously. Using a standardized survey at 98 sites across six continents, we show that interactions between grazing pressure, climate, soil, and biodiver...