Instituto de Investigaciones Ecológicas y Fisiológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura (IFEVA-CONICET), Facultad de Agronomía, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Av. San Martín 4453 Buenos Aires, (C1417DSE) Argentina.
Trends Ecol Evol. 2011 May;26(5):229-35. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2011.02.003. Epub 2011 Mar 12.
The classic ecological paradigm for deserts, that all processes are controlled by water availability, has limited our imagination for exploring other controls on the cycling of carbon and nutrients in aridland ecosystems. This review of recent studies identifies alternative mechanisms that challenge the idea that all soil processes in aridlands are proximately water-limited, and highlights the significance of photodegradation of aboveground litter and the overriding importance of spatial heterogeneity as a modulator of biotic responses to water availability. Aridlands currently occupy >30% of the terrestrial land surface and are expanding. It is therefore critical to incorporate these previously unappreciated mechanisms in our understanding of aridland biogeochemistry to mitigate the effects of desertification and global change.
经典的荒漠生态学范式认为，所有过程都受水分可利用性的控制，这限制了我们探索其他控制干旱区生态系统碳和养分循环的机制的想象力。本综述最近的研究确定了替代机制，这些机制挑战了所有干旱地区土壤过程都受水分直接限制的观点，并强调了地上凋落物光降解的重要性以及空间异质性作为生物对水分可利用性响应的调节因子的压倒性重要性。干旱地区目前占据了超过 30%的陆地表面，并在不断扩大。因此，将这些以前未被重视的机制纳入我们对干旱区生物地球化学的理解中，以减轻荒漠化和全球变化的影响至关重要。
