Miriam Muñoz-Rojas

UNSW Sydney | UNSW · School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences (BEES)

Introduction Drylands are a major terrestrial biome, supporting much of the earth's population. Soil microbial communities maintain drylands’ ecosystem functions but are threatened by increasing temperature. Groundcover, such as vegetation or biocrust, drives the patchiness of drylands' soil microbial communities, reflected in fertile islands and r...

In drylands, extreme environmental conditions pose a challenge for restoration, especially on a large scale. Direct seeding is the most cost-effective approach to restore large areas, but it requires improvements to enhance seedling survival and establishment. For this purpose, biopriming seeds with cyanobacteria is promising due to their plant gro...

Low restoration success in degraded drylands has promoted research efforts towards recovery of pioneer components of these ecosystems such as biocrusts. Biocrusts can stabilize soils and improve nutrient cycling to assist vegetation establishment, but their natural recovery following a disturbance may be very slow. Soil inoculation with biocrust-fo...

Soil microbiota are important components of healthy ecosystems. Greater consideration of soil microbiota in the restoration of biodiverse, functional, and resilient ecosystems is required to address the twin global crises of biodiversity decline and climate change. In this review, we discuss available and emerging practical applications of soil mic...

Background and aims Agricultural activities can degrade soils and promote weeds, posing challenges to native species restoration. In agricultural restoration, removing contaminated topsoil is a method designed to reduce elevated soil nutrients caused by fertilisation. This strategy targets weed control by eliminating both aboveground weeds and thei...

Supplementary Information, Figures S1 and S2

Restoration managers inoculate microorganisms to enhance soil function and improve restoration success, but the efficacy of these inoculations in real‐world conditions is still unclear. We conducted a field experiment to test whether applying extruded seed pellets inoculated with native microbes affected soil properties related to ecosystem functio...

Microbiomics is the science of characterizing microbial community structure, function, and dynamics. It has great potential to advance our understanding of plant–soil–microbe processes and interaction networks which can be applied to improve ecosystem restoration. However, microbiomics may be perceived as complex and the technology is not accessibl...

Background and aims Agricultural activities can degrade soils and promote weeds, posing challenges in restoring native plant species. Removing contaminated topsoil, a restoration method used in some agricultural systems, reduces soil nutrients, and eliminates weeds both aboveground and in soil seed bank before direct seeding. However, it also dimin...

Introduction Biocrust cyanobacteria have a large potential as biofertilizers for restoring degraded ecosystems because of their ability to improve soil nutrition and stabilisation, and to produce metabolites such as phytohormones to enhance plant growth. However, important aspects regarding the effects of cyanobacteria on native plants, such as met...

Context Seeding is common practice for ecological restoration, but establishment rates can be low. For seeds to successfully establish they must transition through early life stages of germination, emergence, and (initial) survival. Examining these demographic processes for seeds sown under a range of abiotic conditions can identify failure points...

The intersection of fire, land use transformations, and climate change is putting Mediterranean climate-type ecosystems at risk of soil degradation and loss of ecosystem services. Ondik et al. (2022b) showed that in a Mediterranean dry sclerophyll woodland of South Australia, high severity fire and clearing and grazing practices impacted both physi...

Australia is the fifth largest country by size, and one of the most arid in the world. Agriculture is one of the key sectors in terms of spatial extent and economic relevance. However, because of their ancient and weathered nature, Australian agricultural soils are particularly susceptible to degradation processes such as erosion, compaction, salin...

There are a wide variety of microbial inoculant types available to restoration practitioners, but little information as to which performs best under field conditions in dryland ecosystems. We used a meta-analysis of 62 dryland studies to provide the first quantitative comparison of native vs commercial, diverse vs single species, and fungal vs bact...

Fire directly impacts soil properties responsible for soil function and can result in soil degradation. Across the globe, climate change-induced droughts and elevated temperatures are exacerbating fire regime severity, breadth, and frequency, thus posing a threat to soil function and dependent ecosystem services. In Australia, the 2019–2020 fire se...

Seed‐based ecosystem restoration has huge potential to restore degraded drylands. However, fewer than 10% of directly sown seeds transition to established seedlings. One of the potential factors restricting plant establishment in degraded soils is the low abundance and diversity of native soil micro‐organisms. In this study, we investigated whether...

Soil cryptogamic biocrusts provide many ecological functions in arid zone ecosystems, though their natural reestablishment in disturbed areas is slow. Accelerating reestablishment of biocrusts may facilitate the establishment of vascular plant communities within the timeframes of restoration targets (typically 5–15 years). One technique is to inocu...

Research in global change ecology relies heavily on global climatic grids derived from estimates of air temperature in open areas at around 2 m above the ground. These climatic grids do not reflect conditions below vegetation canopies and near the ground surface, where critical ecosystem functions occur and most terrestrial species reside. Here, we...

Urbanization transforms environments in ways that alter biological evolution. We examined whether urban environmental change drives parallel evolution by sampling 110,019 white clover plants from 6169 populations in 160 cities globally. Plants were assayed for a Mendelian antiherbivore defense that also affects tolerance to abiotic stressors. Urban...

Land degradation is one of our foremost challenges, and there is a pressing need for further research into causes, management, and solutions to restore ecosystems. The studies within this issue provide key insights into the different causes of land degradation, from overgrazing, limited water availability, or mining operations. Furthermore, these s...

Spanish black pine ( Pinus nigra Arn ssp . salzmannii ) is the most widely distributed pine species in mountain areas of the Mediterranean Basin and is commonly used for afforestation in endangered and degraded areas. Despite its importance, little is known regarding the factors driving seedling survival for this species, which may hamper afforesta...

Biocrust cyanobacteria are ubiquitous organisms in dryland environments that can enhance soil stability and improve nutrient conditions in reconstructed or disturbed soils. Despite the demonstrated benefits of cyanobacterial inoculation for promoting soil fertility, there is limited knowledge about the impacts of introducing cultured cyanobacteria...

La biodiversidad y el carbono orgánico del suelo, así como la interacción entre ambos, juegan papeles esenciales en el mantenimiento y regulación de los servicios ecosistémicos de las zonas secas, desde la fertilidad del suelo a la producción de alimentos. El cambio climático y los impactos antrópicos pueden provocar pérdidas en la biodiversidad y...

Context: Vegetation patterns in hummock grasslands of Australia's arid interior can be very complex. Additionally, the grasslands are interspersed with variable amounts of trees and shrubs. Objectives: To better understand the spatial arrangement of this vegetation structure, and in particular the unvegetated bare-soil gaps, we analyzed the scale-...

This study shows that drylands have a high potential to sequester SOC as long as the most appropriate management practices are carried out and precise and exhaustive monitoring and evaluation to achieve this objective.

Soil carbon contents and biodiversity play critical roles for the maintenance and regulation of ecosystem services in drylands. Increases in aridity are predicted to have a large impact on the soil carbon contents and microbial communities. These impacts can have serious implications at global scales which are still largely unknown. To increase car...

Description, carbon and other benefits, drawbacks and barriers of grassland-related practices. Chapters: 30. Conservation of permanent grassland 31. Grassland diversification 32. Restoration of degraded grassland 33. Conversion of cropland to grassland 34. Improved pasture management 35. Grazing exclusion and rotational grazing 36. Pastoralism Book...

Rehabilitation of mine sites in semi-arid landscapes is hindered by poor quality mine waste substrates, a byproduct of mining used as alternative growth media. Inorganic soil amendments, such as gypsum and urea, are sometimes used to improve the chemical and physical quality of mine waste substrates and increase native plant establishment. However,...

Changes in climate are expected to alter fire regimes, with critical implications in soils and ecosystems. Biological soil crusts or biocrusts are communities of photosynthetic organisms (cyanobacteria, bryophytes, lichens and/or microalgae), and associated bacteria, archaea, and fungi, that have important ecological and biological roles. Recent re...

Research in environmental science relies heavily on global climatic grids derived from estimates of air temperature at around 2 meter above ground1-3. These climatic grids however fail to reflect conditions near and below the soil surface, where critical ecosystem functions such as soil carbon storage are controlled and most biodiversity resides4-8...

Biological soil crusts or biocrusts have critical ecological roles in dryland ecosystems including soil stabilization, erosion control and nutrient cycling. Global environmental changes are expected to impact terrestrial ecosystems, including biocrust communities. Thus, a growing number of studies have focused on investigating the diversity of bioc...

Forest are highly vulnerable to global change drivers, such as an increase in wildfire events. Learning more about how and why different post‐fire management strategies regulate the ability of forest ecosystem properties (e.g. plant diversity and function) to simultaneously recover after wildfire and provide multiple ecosystem functions is of criti...

Current methods of mine rehabilitation in the arid zone have a high failure rate at seedling emergence largely due to limited availability of topsoil and low water-holding capacity of alternative growth substrates such as mining overburden and tailings. Further, seedlings have consistently failed to emerge from seeds sown on the soil surface using...

Post-fire environmental conditions can heavily influence the natural regeneration of pine species in Mediterranean forests. Therefore, enhancing post-fire recovery of pine species is fundamental for effective ecological restoration of Mediterranean forests. In this study, the effects of a post-fire restoration treatment on the seedling emergence an...

Aims This research investigated the effects of woody plant identity and season on soil physicochemical properties and microbiological function in the semi-arid Zagros forest, one of the old-growth semi-arid oak forests in the world. Methods Soil sampling was conducted beneath the canopy of six woody (tree and shrub) species in spring and winter. M...

So‐called fairy circles (FCs) comprise a spatially periodic gap pattern in arid grasslands of Namibia and north‐west Western Australia. This pattern has been explained with scale‐dependent ecohydrological feedbacks and the reaction‐diffusion, or Turing mechanism, used in process‐based models that are rooted in physics and pattern‐formation theory....

The role of cyanobacteria from soil biocrusts in restoring degraded land is gaining interest in recent years because of their critical role in enhancing soil fertility and preventing erosion. However, soil restoration through cyanobacterial inoculation remains a challenge for large-scale restoration efforts and new methodologies for effective cyano...

Soil salinization poses an important threat to terrestrial ecosystems and is expected to increase as a consequence of climate change and anthropogenic pressures. Conventional methods such as salt-leaching or application of soil amendments, or nature-based solutions (NBSs) such as phytoremediation, have been widely adopted with contrasting results....

Soil contamination by potentially toxic trace elements (PTEs) such as Cadmium (Cd), is a major environmental concern because of its potential implications to human health. Cacao-based products have been identified as food sources with relatively high Cd contents. Here, we assessed Cd concentrations of cacao-growing soils in four major agricultural...

Climate change impacts are a serious threat to food provisioning, security and the economy. Thus, assessing agricultural suitability and yield reduction under climate change is crucial for sustainable agricultural production. In this study, we used two sub-models of the agro-ecological decision support system MicroLEIS (Terraza and Cervatana) to ev...

Saltmarshes provide many valuable ecosystem services including storage of a large amount of ‘blue carbon’ within their soils. To date, up to 50% of the world’s saltmarshes have been lost or severely degraded primarily due to a variety of anthropogenic pressures. Previous efforts have aimed to restore saltmarshes and their ecosystem functions, but t...

Cyanobacteria are photosynthetic bacteria that form a fundamental part of soil biocrusts, enhance soil function and structure, and can promote plant growth. We assessed the potential of cyanobacteria as a seed bio‐primer for mine‐site restoration in an arid region in Western Australia, examining its effects on native plant growth and the characteri...

Mine rehabilitation is not just earthworks. Mine rehabilitation is a complex, integrated process that involves multiple stakeholders, long-term commitment, and a comprehensive understanding of site-specific conditions. When it comes to the re-introduction of vegetation, increasing the likelihood of successful plant establishment requires the proper...

Mining of mineral resources substantially alters both the above and below-ground soil ecosystem, which then requires rehabilitation back to a pre-mining state. For belowground rehabilitation, recovery of the soil microbiome to a state which can support key biogeochemical cycles, and effective plant colonization is usually required. One solution pro...

In a time when global climate variability threatens the sustainability and productivity of arid ecosystems, the development of effective strategies to recover and protect soil resources and biota is crucial for the survival of these landscapes. With 20% of arid systems degraded and estimates of up to 10 Mha of land degrading each year, this issue i...

Understanding management-induced C sequestration potential in soils under agriculture, forestry, and other land use systems and their quantification to offset increasing greenhouse gases are of global concern. This chapter reviews management-induced changes in C storage in soils of grazing grassland systems, their impacts on ecosystem functions, an...

The dramatic growth of the world's population is increasing the pressure on natural resources, particularly on soil systems. At the same time, inappropriate agricultural practices are causing widespread soil degradation. Improved management of soil resources and identification of the potential agricultural capability of soils is therefore needed to...

Understanding management-induced C sequestration potential in soils under agriculture, forestry, and other land use systems and their quantification to offset increasing greenhouse gases are of global concern. This chapter reviews management-induced changes in C storage in soils of grazing grassland systems, their impacts on ecosystem functions, an...

Fairy circles (FCs) are extremely ordered round patches of bare soil within arid grasslands of southwestern Africa and northwestern Australia. Their origin is disputed because biotic factors such as insects or abiotic factors such as edaphic and eco‐hydrological feedback mechanisms have been suggested to be causal. In this research, we used a multi...

Dryland areas are being seriously affected by degradation processes. The use of organic amendments in ecosystem restoration is an effective technique for accelerating soil regeneration processes in degraded drylands. This recovery is a result of the rapid increment of organic matter and clay contents in the soil in the short term. In the long-term,...

Background and aims Cyanobacteria from biocrusts can enhance soil function and structure, a critical objective when restoring degraded dryland ecosystems. Large-scale restoration of biodiversity requires direct seeding of native plant species, and bio-priming seeds with cyanobacteria is a potential method of initiating enhanced soil functioning. Th...

Cyanobacteria are a phylum of photosynthetic bacteria distributed globally in a wide range of habitats. In drylands, they form critical components of biocrusts – topsoil assemblages of microorganisms, mosses and lichens – that stabilise the surface and enrich the soil profile. Ecologically significant and well adapted to extreme arid conditions, bi...

Despite significant efforts to restore dryland ecosystems worldwide, the rate of success of restoration is extremely low in these areas. The role of cyanobacteria from soil biocrusts in reestablishing soil functions of degraded land has been highlighted in recent years. These organisms are capable of improving soil structure and promoting soil N an...

Soils provide and regulate a large number of ecosystem services (ES) and play an important role in sustaining humanity. The benefits we receive from soils are directly or indirectly linked to clean air and water and food production, among others, and are key to poverty alleviation and climate change mitigation. These are some of the most important...

Currently 20% of dryland regions are degraded and will continue to degrade at a rate of 12 million ha per year (Kildisheva et al. 2016). A critical challenge faced is the limitation of available topsoil. In the absence, alternative substrates are adopted (i.e., overburden and blended soil types (topsoil: overburden), however these soil types often...

The use of native plant seeds is fundamental to large-scale rehabilitation and the re-establishment of selfsustaining ecosystems after high-impact mining activity has ceased. However, many of the biological attributes of seeds are often overlooked in large-scale rehabilitation programs. Multi-disciplinary, long-term research collaborations are requ...