Small-scale patterns of abundance of mosses and lichens forming biological soil crusts in two semi-arid gypsum environments
I. Martínez A E , A. Escudero A , F. T. Maestre A B , A. de la Cruz A , C. Guerrero C and A. Rubio DA Área de Biodiversidad y Conservación, Escuela Superior de Ciencias Experimentales y Tecnología, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, C/ Tulipán, s/n, Móstoles, Spain.
B Department of Biology, Duke University, Phytotron Building, Science Drive, Box 90340, Durham, North Carolina 27708-0340, USA.
C Departamento de Agroquímica y Medio Ambiente, Universidad Miguel Hernández, 03202 Elche, Spain.
D Departamento de Silvopascicultura, E.T.S.I. Montes, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 28040-Madrid, Spain.
E Corresponding author. Email: isabel.martinez@urjc.es
Australian Journal of Botany 54(4) 339-348 https://doi.org/10.1071/BT05078
Submitted: 8 April 2005 Accepted: 27 October 2005 Published: 22 June 2006
Abstract
Despite important advances in the understanding of biological soil crusts and their key role in ecosystem processes in arid and semi-arid environments, little is known about those factors driving the small-scale patterns of abundance and distribution of crust-forming lichens and mosses. We used constrained ordination techniques (RDAs) to test the hypothesis that the spatial patterning of lichens and mosses is related to surface and subsurface soil variables in two semi-arid gypsum environments of Spain. Our results show that the abundance of mosses and lichens forming biological soil crusts was related to a limited set of variables (cover of bare soil and litter, soil respiration, potassium content and aggregate stability). Moreover, they provide some insights into the importance of these variables as drivers of biological soil-crust composition and abundance in semi-arid gypsum environments.
Acknowledgments
We thank Pilar Bernal and Rafael Clemente (CEBAS–CSIC) for help with C and N analysis. The work of FTM was supported by a MEC/Fulbright fellowship (FU2003–0398), funded by the Dirección General de Universidades and the Fondo Social Europeo. This research was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology (project number REN 2003-03366) to AE and by the Community of Madrid (project number GR/AMB/0932/2004) to AE, FM and IM.
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