Abstract
Despite the high relevance of communities dominated by lichens, mosses and cyanobacteria living on the soil surface (biocrusts) for ecosystem functioning in drylands, no study to date has investigated the decomposition of biocrust-forming lichen litter in situ. Thus, we do not know whether the drivers of its decomposition are similar to those for plant litter (for example, importance of abiotic degradation through UV radiation), the magnitude of lichen decomposition rates and whether they will be affected by ongoing climate change. Here we report the results from a litter decomposition experiment carried out with two biocrust-forming lichens (Diploschistes diacapsis and Cladonia convoluta) that differ in litter chemical quality (C:N ratio) in central Spain. We evaluated how lichen decomposition was affected by warming, rainfall exclusion and their combination. We also manipulated the incidence of UV radiation using mesh material that blocked 10% or 90% of incoming UV radiation. Our results indicate that lichens decompose as fast as some plants typical of the study area (k ~ 0.3 y−1). We observed differences among the species studied in line with what is expected according to their chemical composition. Warming increased decomposition rates of both lichen species by 28% and mediated the effects of photodegradation. Although UV exposure accelerated the decomposition of D. diacapsis, it slowed that of C. convoluta. Our results indicate that biocrust-forming lichens can decompose in the field at a rate similar to that of vascular plants and that this process will be affected by warming. The findings presented emphasize the need of considering biocrusts and the decomposition of their tissues when honing ecosystem models aiming to forecast carbon cycling responses to climate change in drylands.
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DATA AVAILABILITY
Data can be found at: https://figshare.com/s/d5fa2310717821c6b779. The digital object identifier of these data is: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.11822538.
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Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the European Research Council [ERC Grant Nos. 242658 (BIOCOM) and 647038 (BIODESERT) awarded to F.T.M.]. M.B. acknowledges support from a Juan de la Cierva Formación Grant from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (FJCI-2018-036520-I). F.T.M. acknowledges support from Generalitat Valenciana (CIDEGENT/2018/041), the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and the Synthesis Centre for Biodiversity Sciences (sDiv) of the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv).
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M.B., A.R. and F.T.M designed the experiment. V.O., B.G., L.G. and D.M. monitored the experiment and took laboratory and weight measurements. A.R., M.B. and D.O.M. performed statistical analyses. M.B. and D.O.M. wrote the paper and all authors contributed to further editions and corrections.
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Berdugo, M., Mendoza-Aguilar, D.O., Rey, A. et al. Litter Decomposition Rates of Biocrust-Forming Lichens Are Similar to Those of Vascular Plants and Are Affected by Warming. Ecosystems 24, 1531–1544 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-020-00599-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-020-00599-0