Biogeography of global drylands.

New Phytol

Instituto Multidisciplinar para el Estudio del Medio "Ramon Margalef", Universidad de Alicante, Carretera de San Vicente del Raspeig s/n, San Vicente del Raspeig, Alicante, 03690, Spain.

Published: July 2021

Despite their extent and socio-ecological importance, a comprehensive biogeographical synthesis of drylands is lacking. Here we synthesize the biogeography of key organisms (vascular and nonvascular vegetation and soil microorganisms), attributes (functional traits, spatial patterns, plant-plant and plant-soil interactions) and processes (productivity and land cover) across global drylands. These areas have a long evolutionary history, are centers of diversification for many plant lineages and include important plant diversity hotspots. This diversity captures a strikingly high portion of the variation in leaf functional diversity observed globally. Part of this functional diversity is associated with the large variation in response and effect traits in the shrubs encroaching dryland grasslands. Aridity and its interplay with the traits of interacting plant species largely shape biogeographical patterns in plant-plant and plant-soil interactions, and in plant spatial patterns. Aridity also drives the composition of biocrust communities and vegetation productivity, which shows large geographical variation. We finish our review by discussing major research gaps, which include: studying regular vegetation spatial patterns; establishing large-scale plant and biocrust field surveys assessing individual-level trait measurements; knowing whether the impacts of plant-plant and plant-soil interactions on biodiversity are predictable; and assessing how elevated CO modulates future aridity conditions and plant productivity.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/nph.17395DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

spatial patterns
12
plant-plant plant-soil
12
plant-soil interactions
12
global drylands
8
patterns plant-plant
8
functional diversity
8
plant
6
biogeography global
4
drylands despite
4
despite extent
4

Similar Publications

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!