TY - JOUR
T1 - Towards a predictive framework for biocrust mediation of plant performance
T2 - A meta-analysis
AU - Havrilla, Caroline A.
AU - Chaudhary, V. Bala
AU - Ferrenberg, Scott
AU - Antoninka, Anita J.
AU - Belnap, Jayne
AU - Bowker, Matthew A.
AU - Eldridge, David J.
AU - Faist, Akasha M.
AU - Huber-Sannwald, Elisabeth
AU - Leslie, Alexander D.
AU - Rodriguez-Caballero, Emilio
AU - Zhang, Yuanming
AU - Barger, Nichole N.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was conducted as part of the ‘Completing the dryland puzzle: creating a predictive framework for biological soil crust function and response to climate change' Working Group supported by the John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis, funded by the U.S. Geological Survey. We thank the University of Colorado Boulder Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP), which helped support undergraduate researchers who assisted with data entry for this project. Particularly, we thank CU Boulder undergraduate researcher assistants Emma Brokyl, Julius Gayo and Whitney Gabbert for their invaluable work on database compilation and organization for this project. C.A.H. was supported by the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado Boulder and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (award DGE‐1144083). V.B.C. was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (award DEB‐1844531) and the DePaul University College of Science and Health. E.H.S. was supported by Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (project SEP‐CONACYT 251388). J.B. was supported by the USGS Ecosystem and Land Change Sciences program. Any use of trade, firm or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.
Funding Information:
This work was conducted as part of the ?Completing the dryland puzzle: creating a predictive framework for biological soil crust function and response to climate change' Working Group supported by the John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis, funded by the U.S. Geological Survey. We thank the University of Colorado Boulder Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP), which helped support undergraduate researchers who assisted with data entry for this project. Particularly, we thank CU Boulder undergraduate researcher assistants Emma Brokyl, Julius Gayo and Whitney Gabbert for their invaluable work on database compilation and organization for this project. C.A.H. was supported by the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado Boulder and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (award DGE-1144083). V.B.C. was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (award DEB-1844531) and the DePaul University College of Science and Health. E.H.S. was supported by Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnolog?a (project SEP-CONACYT 251388). J.B. was supported by the USGS Ecosystem and Land Change Sciences program. Any use of trade, firm or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 The Authors. Journal of Ecology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Ecological Society.
PY - 2019/11/1
Y1 - 2019/11/1
N2 - Understanding the importance of biotic interactions in driving the distribution and abundance of species is a central goal of plant ecology. Early vascular plants likely colonized land occupied by biocrusts — photoautotrophic, surface-dwelling soil communities comprised of cyanobacteria, bryophytes, lichens and fungi — suggesting biotic interactions between biocrusts and plants have been at play for some 2,000 million years. Today, biocrusts coexist with plants in dryland ecosystems worldwide, and have been shown to both facilitate or inhibit plant species performance depending on ecological context. Yet, the factors that drive the direction and magnitude of these effects remain largely unknown. We conducted a meta-analysis of plant responses to biocrusts using a global dataset encompassing 1,004 studies from six continents. Meta-analysis revealed there is no simple positive or negative effect of biocrusts on plants. Rather, plant responses differ by biocrust composition and plant species traits and vary across plant ontogeny. Moss-dominated biocrusts facilitated, while lichen-dominated biocrusts inhibited overall plant performance. Plant responses also varied among plant functional groups: C4 grasses received greater benefits from biocrusts compared to C3 grasses, and plants without N-fixing symbionts responded more positively to biocrusts than plants with N-fixing symbionts. Biocrusts decreased germination but facilitated growth of non-native plant species. Synthesis. Results suggest that interspecific variation in plant responses to biocrusts, contingent on biocrust type, plant traits, and ontogeny can have strong impacts on plant species performance. These findings have important implications for understanding biocrust contributions to plant productivity and community assembly processes in ecosystems worldwide.
AB - Understanding the importance of biotic interactions in driving the distribution and abundance of species is a central goal of plant ecology. Early vascular plants likely colonized land occupied by biocrusts — photoautotrophic, surface-dwelling soil communities comprised of cyanobacteria, bryophytes, lichens and fungi — suggesting biotic interactions between biocrusts and plants have been at play for some 2,000 million years. Today, biocrusts coexist with plants in dryland ecosystems worldwide, and have been shown to both facilitate or inhibit plant species performance depending on ecological context. Yet, the factors that drive the direction and magnitude of these effects remain largely unknown. We conducted a meta-analysis of plant responses to biocrusts using a global dataset encompassing 1,004 studies from six continents. Meta-analysis revealed there is no simple positive or negative effect of biocrusts on plants. Rather, plant responses differ by biocrust composition and plant species traits and vary across plant ontogeny. Moss-dominated biocrusts facilitated, while lichen-dominated biocrusts inhibited overall plant performance. Plant responses also varied among plant functional groups: C4 grasses received greater benefits from biocrusts compared to C3 grasses, and plants without N-fixing symbionts responded more positively to biocrusts than plants with N-fixing symbionts. Biocrusts decreased germination but facilitated growth of non-native plant species. Synthesis. Results suggest that interspecific variation in plant responses to biocrusts, contingent on biocrust type, plant traits, and ontogeny can have strong impacts on plant species performance. These findings have important implications for understanding biocrust contributions to plant productivity and community assembly processes in ecosystems worldwide.
KW - biological soil crust
KW - biotic interactions
KW - biotic resistance; biotic soil community; germination
KW - facilitation
KW - meta-analysis
KW - plant functional traits
KW - plant–soil (below-ground) interactions
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85073618482&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85073618482&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/1365-2745.13269
DO - 10.1111/1365-2745.13269
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85073618482
SN - 0022-0477
VL - 107
SP - 2789
EP - 2807
JO - Journal of Ecology
JF - Journal of Ecology
IS - 6
ER -