OPENAIRE OpenAire Datacite CORE (RIOXX-UK Aggregator) Sygma Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (BASE) UnpayWall ZENODO Crossref Microsoft Academic Graph Europe PubMed Central European Union Open Data Portal https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/128150/8/Dur-n_et_al-2018-Ecology.pdf https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ecy.2199 https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.2199 Ecology Open Access 2018-02-27 Abstract<p>The relationship between the spatial variability of soil multifunctionality (i.e., the capacity of soils to conduct multiple functions; SVM) and major climatic drivers, such as temperature and aridity, has never been assessed globally in terrestrial ecosystems. We surveyed 236 dryland ecosystems from six continents to evaluate the relative importance of aridity and mean annual temperature, and of other abiotic (e.g., texture) and biotic (e.g., plant cover) variables as drivers of SVM, calculated as the averaged coefficient of variation for multiple soil variables linked to nutrient stocks and cycling. We found that increases in temperature and aridity were globally correlated to increases in SVM. Some of these climatic effects on SVM were direct, but others were indirectly driven through reductions in the number of vegetation patches and increases in soil sand content. The predictive capacity of our structural equationￂﾠmodelling was clearly higher for the spatial variability of N￢ﾀﾐ than for C￢ﾀﾐ and P￢ﾀﾐrelated soil variables. In the case of N cycling, the effects of temperature and aridity were both direct and indirect via changes in soil properties. For C and P, the effect of climate was mainly indirect via changes in plant attributes. These results suggest that future changes in climate may decouple the spatial availability of these elements for plants and microbes in dryland soils. Our findings significantly advance our understanding of the patterns and mechanisms driving SVM in drylands across the globe, which is critical for predicting changes in ecosystem functioning in response to climate change.</p Abiotic component Atmospheric sciences Physical geography Arid Climate Change Soil Science Spatial variability Environmental science Agricultural and Biological Sciences Soil Biodiversity Conservation and Ecosystem Management Soil texture Aridity index XXXXXX - Unknown Soil water FOS: Mathematics Pathology Climate change Biology Ecosystem Nature and Landscape Conservation Soil science 2. Zero hunger Global and Planetary Change Soil Fertility Ecology Geography Global Forest Drought Response and Climate Change Statistics Temperature Life Sciences Cycling Geology FOS: Earth and related environmental sciences 04 agricultural and veterinary sciences Plants 15. Life on land Archaeology 13. Climate action FOS: Biological sciences Environmental Science Physical Sciences Medicine 0401 agriculture, forestry, and fisheries Soil Carbon Dynamics and Nutrient Cycling in Ecosystems Ecosystem Functioning Vegetation (pathology) Mathematics carbon cycling; climate change; multifunctionality; nitrogen cycling; phosphorous cycling; spatial heterogeneity Fernando T. Maestre, Reginald T. Guuroh, Reginald T. Guuroh, Andrew D. Thomas, Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo, Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo, Anja Linstädter, Anja Linstädter, Andrew J. Dougill, Jorge Durán, 2018-05-01 journalpaper Abstract<p>The relationship between the spatial variability of soil multifunctionality (i.e., the capacity of soils to conduct multiple functions; SVM) and major climatic drivers, such as temperature and aridity, has never been assessed globally in terrestrial ecosystems. We surveyed 236 dryland ecosystems from six continents to evaluate the relative importance of aridity and mean annual temperature, and of other abiotic (e.g., texture) and biotic (e.g., plant cover) variables as drivers of SVM, calculated as the averaged coefficient of variation for multiple soil variables linked to nutrient stocks and cycling. We found that increases in temperature and aridity were globally correlated to increases in SVM. Some of these climatic effects on SVM were direct, but others were indirectly driven through reductions in the number of vegetation patches and increases in soil sand content. The predictive capacity of our structural equationￂﾠmodelling was clearly higher for the spatial variability of N￢ﾀﾐ than for C￢ﾀﾐ and P￢ﾀﾐrelated soil variables. In the case of N cycling, the effects of temperature and aridity were both direct and indirect via changes in soil properties. For C and P, the effect of climate was mainly indirect via changes in plant attributes. These results suggest that future changes in climate may decouple the spatial availability of these elements for plants and microbes in dryland soils. Our findings significantly advance our understanding of the patterns and mechanisms driving SVM in drylands across the globe, which is critical for predicting changes in ecosystem functioning in response to climate change.</p Temperature and aridity regulate spatial variability of soil multifunctionality in drylands across the globe 10.1002/ecy.2199 702057