RT Journal Article
T1 Hotspots of biogeochemical activity linked to aridity and plant traits across global drylands
A1 Eldridge, David J.
A1 Ding, Jingyi
A1 Dorrough, Josh
A1 Delgado Baquerizo, Manuel
A1 Sala, Osvaldo
A1 Gross, Nicolas
A1 Le Bagousse Pinguet, Yoann
A1 Mallen Cooper, Max
A1 Saiz, Hugo
A1 Asensio, Sergio
A1 Ochoa, Victoria
A1 Gozalo, Beatriz
A1 Guirado, Emilio
A1 García Gómez, Miguel
A1 Valencia Gómez, Enrique
A1 Martínez Valderrama, Jaime
A1 Plaza, César
A1 Abedi, Mehdi
A1 Ahmadian, Negar
A1 Ahumada, Rodrigo J.
A1 Alcántara, Julio M.
A1 Amghar, Fateh
A1 Azevedo, Luísa
A1 Ben Salem, Farah
A1 Berdugo Vega, Miguel
A1 Blaum, Niels
A1 Boldgiv, Bazartseren
A1 Bowker, Matthew
A1 Bran, Donaldo
A1 Bu, Chongfeng
A1 Canessa, Rafaella
A1 Castillo Monroy, Andrea P.
A1 Castro, Ignacio
A1 Castro Quezada, Patricio
A1 Cesarz, Simone
A1 Chibani, Roukaya
A1 Conceição, Abel Augusto
A1 Darrouzet Nardi, Anthony
A1 Davila, Yvonne C.
A1 Deák, Balázs
A1 Díaz Martínez, Paloma
A1 Donoso, David A.
A1 Dougill, Andrew David
A1 Durán, Jorge
A1 Eisenhauer, Nico
A1 Ejtehadi, Hamid
A1 Espinosa, Carlos Ivan
A1 Fajardo, Alex
A1 Farzam, Mohammad
A1 Foronda, Ana
A1 Franzese, Jorgelina
A1 Fraser, Lauchlan H.
A1 Gaitán, Juan
A1 Geissler, Katja
A1 Gonzalez, Sofía Laura
A1 Gusman Montalvan, Elizabeth
A1 Hernández, Rosa Mary
A1 Hölzel, Norbert
A1 Hughes, Frederic Mendes
A1 Jadan, Oswaldo
A1 Jentsch, Anke
A1 Ju, Mengchen
A1 Kaseke, Kudzai F.
A1 Köbel, Melanie
A1 Lehmann, Anika
A1 Liancourt, Pierre
A1 Linstädter, Anja
A1 Louw, Michelle A.
A1 Ma, Quanhui
A1 Mabaso, Mancha
A1 Maggs-Kölling, Gillian
A1 Makhalanyane, Thulani P.
A1 Issa, Oumarou Malam
A1 Marais, Eugene
A1 McClaran, Mitchel
A1 Mendoza, Betty
A1 Mokoka, Vincent
A1 Mora, Juan P.
A1 Moreno, Gerardo
A1 Munson, Seth
A1 Nunes, Alice
A1 Oliva, Gabriel
A1 Oñatibia, Gastón R.
A1 Osborne, Brooke
A1 Peter, Guadalupe
A1 Pierre, Margerie
A1 Pueyo, Yolanda
A1 Emiliano Quiroga, R.
A1 Reed, Sasha
A1 Rey, Ana
A1 Rey, Pedro
A1 Gómez, Víctor Manuel Reyes
A1 Rolo, Víctor
A1 Rillig, Matthias C.
A1 Le Roux, Peter C.
A1 Ruppert, Jan Christian
A1 Salah, Ayman
A1 Sebei, Phokgedi Julius
A1 Sharkhuu, Anarmaa
A1 Stavi, Ilan
A1 Stephens, Colton
A1 López Teixido, Alberto
A1 Thomas, Andrew David
A1 Tielbörger, Katja
A1 Robles, Silvia Torres
A1 Travers, Samantha
A1 Valkó, Orsolya
A1 van den Brink, Liesbeth
A1 Velbert, Frederike
A1 von Heßberg, Andreas
A1 Wamiti, Wanyoike
A1 Wang, Deli
A1 Wang, Lixin
A1 Wardle, Glenda M.
A1 Yahdjian, Laura
A1 Zaady, Eli
A1 Zhang, Yuanming
A1 Zhou, Xiaobing
A1 Maestre, Fernando T.
AB 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 importance of grazing pressure and herbivore type, climate and plant functional traits on 24 soil physical and chemical attributes that represent proxies of key ecosystem services related to decomposition, soil fertility, and soil and water conservation. To do this, we conducted a standardized global survey of 288 plots at 88 sites in 25 countries worldwide. We show that aridity and plant traits are the major factors associated with the magnitude of plant effects on fertile islands in grazed drylands worldwide. Grazing pressure had little influence on the capacity of plants to support fertile islands. Taller and wider shrubs and grasses supported stronger island effects. Stable and functional soils tended to be linked to species-rich sites with taller plants. Together, our findings dispel the notion that grazing pressure or herbivore type are linked to the formation or intensification of fertile islands in drylands. Rather, our study suggests that changes in aridity, and processes that alter island identity and therefore plant traits, will have marked effects on how perennial plants support and maintain the functioning of drylands in a more arid and grazed world.
PB Nature Research
SN 2055-026X
YR 2024
FD 2024-04
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/119905
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/119905
LA eng
NO Eldridge, D.J., Ding, J., Dorrough, J. et al. Hotspots of biogeochemical activity linked to aridity and plant traits across global drylands. Nat. Plants 10, 760–770 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-024-01670-7
NO Funding: This research was supported by the European Research Council (ERC grant 647038 (BIODESERT) awarded to F.T.M.) and Generalitat Valenciana (CIDEGENT/2018/041). D.J.E. was supported by the Hermon Slade Foundation (HSF21040). J. Ding was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China Project (41991232) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China. M.D.-B. acknowledges support from TED2021-130908B-C41/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/Unión Europea Next Generation EU/PRTR and the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation for the I + D + i project PID2020-115813RA-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033. O.S. was supported by US National Science Foundation (Grants DEB 1754106, 20-25166), and Y.L.B.-P. by a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Individual Fellowship (MSCA-1018 IF) within the European Program Horizon 2020 (DRYFUN Project 656035). K.G. and N.B. acknowledge support from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) SPACES projects OPTIMASS (FKZ: 01LL1302A) and ORYCS (FKZ: FKZ01LL1804A). B.B. was supported by the Taylor Family-Asia Foundation Endowed Chair in Ecology and Conservation Biology, and M. Bowker by funding from the School of Forestry, Northern Arizona University. C.B. acknowledges funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41971131). D.B. acknowledges support from the Hungarian Research, Development and Innovation Office (NKFI KKP 144096), and A. Fajardo support from ANID PIA/BASAL FB 210006 and the Millennium Science Initiative Program NCN2021-050. M.F. and H.E. received funding from Ferdowsi University of Mashhad (grant 39843). A.N. and M.K. acknowledge support from FCT (CEECIND/02453/2018/CP1534/CT0001, SFRH/BD/130274/2017, PTDC/ASP-SIL/7743/2020, UIDB/00329/2020), EEA (10/CALL#5), AdaptForGrazing (PRR-C05-i03-I-000035) and LTsER Montado platform (LTER_EU_PT_001) grants. O.V. acknowledges support from the Hungarian Research, Development and Innovation Office (NKFI KKP 144096). L.W. was supported by the US National Science Foundation (EAR 1554894). Y.Z. and X.Z. were supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (U2003214). H.S. is supported by a María Zambrano fellowship funded by the Ministry of Universities and European Union-Next Generation plan.
NO European Commission
NO European Research Council
NO Generalitat Valenciana
NO Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (España)
NO Ministerio de Universidades (España)
NO Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (Deutschland)
NO Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portugal)
NO Hungarian Research, Development and Innovation Office
NO National Science Foundation (EE.UU.)
NO National Natural Science Foundation of China
NO Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo (Chile)
NO Iniciativa Científica Milenio (Chile)
NO Ferdowsi University of Mashhad
NO Northern Arizona University
NO Taylor Family-Asia Foundation Endowed Chair in Ecology and Conservation Biology
DS Docta Complutense
RD 17 jun 2025