RT Journal Article
T1 Vegetation resistance to increasing aridity when crossing thresholds depends on local environmental conditions in global drylands
A1 Abel, Christin
A1 Maestre, Fernando T.
A1 Berdugo Vega, Miguel
A1 Tagesson, Torbern
A1 Abdi, Abdulhakim M.
A1 Horion, Stephanie
A1 Fensholt, Rasmus
AB The crossing of aridity thresholds triggers abrupt changes in multiple functional and structural ecosystem attributes across global drylands. While we understand the consequences associated with aridity thresholds, the key factors influencing dryland vegetation resistance when crossing them remain unclear. Here, we used field observations from 58 dryland sites across five continents and satellite remote sensing data (2000-2022) to show that plant richness, soil moisture dynamics and texture, and bare soil fraction are important variables contributing to vegetation resistance. Additionally, drought history (frequency and magnitude of past droughts) is important in interaction with plant richness and soil texture. Interestingly, plant species richness was negatively related to vegetation resistance, except in areas with higher drought history and in grasslands. Our results highlight that vegetation resistance depends on local environmental conditions. Enhancing our understanding of the factors important for vegetation resistance is an important step towards dryland conservation efforts and sustainable management strategies.
PB Nature Portfolio
YR 2024
FD 2024-07-16
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/118580
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/118580
LA eng
NO Abel, C., Maestre, F.T., Berdugo, M. et al. Vegetation resistance to increasing aridity when crossing thresholds depends on local environmental conditions in global drylands. Commun Earth Environ 5, 46 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-024-01546-w
NO C.A. was supported by the European Space Agency (ESA) as part of the Climate Change Initiative (CCI) fellowship (ESA ESRIN/Contract No. 4000133555). Fieldwork acquisition was funded by the European Research Council projects BIOCOM (ERC Grant agreement 242658) and BIODESERT (ERC Grant agreement 647038), awarded to F.T.M. F.T.M. acknowledges support by the University of Alicante (UADIF22-74 and VIGROB22-350) and the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (PID2020-116578RB-IOO). M.B. was funded by a Ramón y Cajal grant from the Spanish Ministry of Science (RYC2021-031797-I). A.M.A. was supported by the Swedish Research Council (project number 2018-00430). T.T. was supported by the Swedish National Space Agency (SNSA 2021-00144 and 2021-00111) and FORMAS (Dnr. 202100644). S.H. is funded by the research projects DRYTIP (grant 37465) from VILLUM FONDEN and PerformLCA (Data+ Strategy 2023 funds) from University of Copenhagen. R.F. was supported by the research grant DeReEco (34306) from VILLUM FONDEN. C.A. and R.F. acknowledge funding support from the Independent Research Fund Denmark (CLISA, 2032-00026B).
NO European Space Agency
NO European Research Council
NO Universidad de Alicante
NO Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (España)
NO Swedish Research Council
NO Swedish National Space Agency
NO FORMAS
NO VILLUM FONDEN
NO University of Copenhagen
NO Independent Research Fund Denmark
DS Docta Complutense
RD 26 feb 2026