articleScienceFeb 14, 2020GREEN OA

Global ecosystem thresholds driven by aridity

MBMiguel BerdugoMDManuel Delgado‐BaquerizoSSSantiago SoliveresRHRocío Hernández‐ClementeYZYanchuang Zhao

University of Alicante · Institut de Biologia Evolutiva · +16 more institutions

PubMed
Indexed incrossrefpubmed

Abstract

Aridity, which is increasing worldwide because of climate change, affects the structure and functioning of dryland ecosystems. Whether aridification leads to gradual (versus abrupt) and systemic (versus specific) ecosystem changes is largely unknown. We investigated how 20 structural and functional ecosystem attributes respond to aridity in global drylands. Aridification led to systemic and abrupt changes in multiple ecosystem attributes. These changes occurred sequentially in three phases characterized by abrupt decays in plant productivity, soil fertility, and plant cover and richness at aridity values of 0.54, 0.7, and 0.8, respectively. More than 20% of the terrestrial surface will cross one or several of…

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1,134
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Authors

13

Topics & keywords

Topics
Keywords
  • Aridification
  • Arid
  • Ecosystem
  • Ecosystem services
  • Productivity
  • Climate change
  • Ecology
  • Environmental science
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