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Biological Soil Crusts as a Model System in Ecology

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Biological Soil Crusts: An Organizing Principle in Drylands

Part of the book series: Ecological Studies ((ECOLSTUD,volume 226))

Abstract

We explore in this chapter how biological soil crusts (biocrusts) may serve as a useful model system for studying multiple questions of interest in ecology, including biodiversity–ecosystem function relationships, positive and negative species interactions along environmental gradients, the source–sink hydrological dynamics in drylands, and ecosystem resistance and resilience. To illustrate our views, we synthesize recent and ongoing studies that are employing biocrusts as model systems to tackle these and other related questions, emphasizing the main features of biocrusts that make them special and well suited to advance ecological theory and our understanding of many important topics in community and ecosystem ecology. We complete the synthesis of the studies conducted so far with recommendations aiming to promote the use of biocrusts by community and ecosystem ecologists.

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Acknowledgments

FTM and EV were supported by the European Research Council under the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013)/ERC Grant agreement 242658 (BIOCOM) during the writing of this chapter. The contribution of JC was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (project UNCROACH, CGL2011-30581-C02-01). MB was supported by a FPU fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports (Ref. AP2010-0759). RL was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (SCIN—Soil Crust InterNational-, PRI-PIMBDV-2011-0874, a BiodivERsA project).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Área de Biodiversidad y Conservación, Departamento de Biología y Geología, Física y Química Inorgánica, Escuela Superior de Ciencias Experimentales y Tecnología, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, c/ Tulipán s/n, 28933, Móstoles, Spain

    Fernando T. Maestre, Miguel Berdugo & Enrique Valencia

  2. School of Forestry, Northern Arizona University, 200 E. Pine Knoll Drive, 15018, Flagstaff, AZ, 86011, USA

    Matthew A. Bowker

  3. Evolution and Ecology Research Centre, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia

    David J. Eldridge

  4. Departamento de Ecología, Universidad de Alicante, Apartado 99, Alicante, Spain

    Jordi Cortina

  5. Departamento de Desertificación y Geoecología, Estación Experimental de Zonas Áridas, CSIC, Almería, Spain

    Roberto Lázaro

  6. Departamento de Sistemas Físicos, Químicos y Naturales, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Carretera de Utrera km. 1, 41013, Sevilla, Spain

    Antonio Gallardo

  7. Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, University of Western Sydney, Penrith, 2751, NSW, Australia

    Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo

  8. Departamento de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja, San Cayetano Alto s/n, Loja, Ecuador

    Andrea P. Castillo-Monroy

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  1. Fernando T. Maestre
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  2. Matthew A. Bowker
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  3. David J. Eldridge
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  4. Jordi Cortina
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  5. Roberto Lázaro
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  6. Antonio Gallardo
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  7. Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo
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  8. Miguel Berdugo
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  9. Andrea P. Castillo-Monroy
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  10. Enrique Valencia
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Fernando T. Maestre .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Multiphase Chemistry Department, Max Plank Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany

    Bettina Weber

  2. Plant Ecology and Systematics, Department of Biology, University of Kaiserslautern, Kaiserslautern, Germany

    Burkhard Büdel

  3. Southwest Biological Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey, Moab, Utah, USA

    Jayne Belnap

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Maestre, F.T. et al. (2016). Biological Soil Crusts as a Model System in Ecology. In: Weber, B., Büdel, B., Belnap, J. (eds) Biological Soil Crusts: An Organizing Principle in Drylands. Ecological Studies, vol 226. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30214-0_20

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