The influence of soil age on ecosystem structure and function across biomes

The importance of soil age as an ecosystem driver across biomes remains largely unresolved. By combining a cross-biome global field survey, including data for 32 soil, plant, and microbial properties in 16 soil chronosequences, with a global meta-analysis, we show that soil age is a significant ecos...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Delgado-Baquerizo, Manuel, Reich, Peter B., Bardgett, Richard D., Eldridge, David J., Lambers, Hans, Wardle, David A., Reed, Sasha C., Plaza de Carlos, César, Png, G. Kenny, Neuhauser, Sigrid, Berhe, Asmeret Asefaw, Hart, Stephen C., Hu, Hang-Wei, He, Ji-Zheng, Bastida, F., Abades, Sebastián, Alfaro, Fernando D., Cutler, Nick A., Gallardo, Antonio, García-Velázquez, Laura, Hayes, Patrick E., Hseu, Zeng-Yei, Pérez, Cecilia A., Santos, Fernanda, Siebe, Christina, Trivedi, Pankaj, Sullivan, Benjamin W., Weber-Grullon, Luis, Williams, Mark A., Fierer, Noah
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2020
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/237383
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/237383
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Biogeochemistry
Ecosystem ecology
Ecosystem services
Macroecology
Descripción
Sumario:The importance of soil age as an ecosystem driver across biomes remains largely unresolved. By combining a cross-biome global field survey, including data for 32 soil, plant, and microbial properties in 16 soil chronosequences, with a global meta-analysis, we show that soil age is a significant ecosystem driver, but only accounts for a relatively small proportion of the cross-biome variation in multiple ecosystem properties. Parent material, climate, vegetation and topography predict, collectively, 24 times more variation in ecosystem properties than soil age alone. Soil age is an important local-scale ecosystem driver; however, environmental context, rather than soil age, determines the rates and trajectories of ecosystem development in structure and function across biomes. Our work provides insights into the natural history of terrestrial ecosystems. We propose that, regardless of soil age, changes in the environmental context, such as those associated with global climatic and land-use changes, will have important long-term impacts on the structure and function of terrestrial ecosystems across biomes.

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