Sonia Chamizo

• Estación Experimental de Zonas Áridas

Drylands are characterised by spatially discontinuous vegetation coverage. Consequently, during most rainfalls, runoff is generated in open areas and redistributed to vegetation. This transfer of water and nutrients from source to sink areas has been identified as a key ecohydrological process modulating drylands functioning. However, there are onl...

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...

Inoculation of cyanobacteria has been studied as a valuable approach to promote soil stabilization and fertilization and counteract the erosion of marginal soils. One of the results of the inoculation of cyanobacteria is the formation of biological soil crusts, or biocrusts, which are complex soil communities playing a pivotal role in providing ess...

Water is a limiting resource for dryland vegetation, and vegetation biomass, composition, and phenology are directly dependent on highly variable water availability and close linkages between water availability and vegetation dynamics that characterized arid and semiarid ecosystems. Dryland perennial vegetation commonly forms isolated patches inter...

Sewage sludge (SS) is widely used as a soil conditioner in agricultural soil due to its high content of organic matter and nutrients. In addition, inoculants based on soil microorganisms, such as cyanobacteria, are being applied successfully in soil restoration to improve soil stability and fertility in agriculture. However, the combination of SS a...

The preservation of nutrient capital, soil fertility, and carbon (C) sequestration capacity in Mediterranean olive groves requires evaluation of agricultural practices beyond short-term productivity. We aim to contribute with a mechanistic understanding on the effects that the preservation of herbaceous cover and the use of chemical fertilizers hav...

Biocrusts are photosynthetic biotic communities of cryptogams and microbes that aggregate minerals at the soil surface in many ecosystems. Due to their high tolerance to harsh environments, biocrusts are present in a wide range of habitats, but are especially representative ground covers in regions with restricted vegetation growth, such as dryland...

Globally widespread, biocrusts form a “living skin” on most dryland soils, helping govern fundamental ecosystem functions, particularly water and heat balances in drylands. Nevertheless, the underlying mechanisms of biocrust effects on topsoil thermal properties and temperature (T) are still unclear. In this study, we continuously measured thermal...

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...

Understanding the physical, chemical, and biological processes and estimating water balance in drylands rely on accurate soil moisture (θ) measurements. Surface soil moisture is influenced by the presence and types of bio-crusts because they strongly modify surface soil properties and hydrological processes. Nevertheless, it is still a challenge to...

Land degradation is one of the main threats to dryland sustainability in the next decades, hence restoration of the degraded land from drylands is an urgent need to maintain ecosystem functionality and their ability to provide ecosystem services. To achieve this goal, restoration practices should pursue the recovery of the main ground components, a...

Soil respiration is an important component of the carbon (C) cycle and a major contributor to total ecosystem C efflux. Knowledge of the factors that drive soil respiration in drylands is limited, despite these regions represent more than 40% of the Earth land’s surface. In these environments, biocrusts play an important role in CO2 exchange toward...

We tested a new type of wind-transported particle collector (multidirectional traps, MDt) in southeast Spain to forecast particle movement in three different soil types. The MDt collectors are easy to manufacture from thermoplastic filaments with an industrial 3D printer. The collectors tested were very efficient. Our research was carried out on un...

Las biocostras son comunidades de organismos autótrofos y heterótrofos que viven en la superficie del 12% de los suelos de la Tierra, donde actúan como ingenieras del ecosistema. Son muy sensibles al cambio climático y a las alteraciones ocasionadas por diferentes actividades antrópicas. En este trabajo, revisamos los impactos de ambos tipos de per...

Links between water and carbon (C) cycles in drylands are strongly regulated by biocrusts. These widespread communities in the intershrub spaces of drylands are able to use non-rainfall water inputs (NRWI) (fog, dewfall and water vapour) to become active and fix carbon dioxide (CO2), converting biocrusts into the main soil C contributors during per...

En este trabajo se ha evaluado el efecto de dos estrategias de reducción del estrés ambiental (REA) sobre el establecimiento y colonización del inóculo de cianobacterias: i) el uso de mallas de vegetación nativa (Macrochloa tenacissima (L.) Kunth) cubriendo el inóculo y ii) la aplicación de pegamento a base de una planta anual nativa (Plantago ovat...

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...

Badlands are landforms that occur all over the World. In the Mediterranean region, badlands are found in both dry (arid and semi‐arid) and wet (subhumid and humid) environments, and are characterized by complex hydro‐geomorphological dynamics, high intense erosion processes and extreme sediment yield. Understanding the impact of Global Change is ke...

Cyanobacteria inoculation to promote biocrust formation and improve soil properties has shown positive results in indoor studies, but limited success when applied under field conditions. Successful results of application of this technology in the field have been only found in desert sand dunes in China. Therefore, further development of this techni...

Cyanobacteria inoculation has recently become an innovative biotechnological tool for restoring degraded arid soils. A major challenge for researchers, however, is the search for suitable species able to cope with water stress under field conditions. The aim of this study was to test the effect of water availability on induced biocrust growth in th...

Land degradation in drylands is a drawback of the combined action of climate change and human activities. New techniques have been developed to induce artificial biocrusts formation as a tool for restoration of degraded drylands, and among them soils inoculation with cyanobacteria adapted to environmental stress. Improvement of soil properties by c...

Globally, most bare-looking areas in dryland regions are covered by biocrusts which play a crucial role in modifying several soil surface properties and driving key ecosystem processes. These keystone communities face important threats (e.g. climate change) that place their conservation at risk and in turn the sustainability of the ecosystems they...

Arid and semi-arid ecosystems are characterized by patchy vegetation and variable resource availability. The interplant spaces of these ecosystems are very often covered by cyanobacteria-dominated biocrusts, which are the primary colonizers of terrestrial ecosystems and key in facilitating the succession of other biocrust organisms and plants. Cyan...

The practice of “cyanobacterization” (soil inoculation with cyanobacteria) has been shown to be effective in increasing soil fertility and physical stability in natural and agricultural soils, but little is known about its utility for the recovery of burned soils. To partly fill this knowledge gap, we inoculated two cyanobacterial species, Phormidi...

Aims A possible approach to restore drylands is to recover biocrusts by inoculating cyanobacteria. Many studies have demonstrated the ability of cyanobacteria to successfully colonize soil and improve its functions. However, most studies have focused on the abiotic factors influencing the inoculation success, overlooking biotic factors. We examined...

Cyanobacteria are widespread prokaryotic organisms that represent feasible biotechnological tools to set up valid approaches to counteract desertification. Their peculiar physiological traits, and their resilience to abiotic stresses, allow their application on abiotically constrained soils to trigger their stabilization. A successful cya-nobacteri...

Runoff and erosion models demonstrate the importance of biocrusts in the spatial distribution of sediment fluxes within the landscape

Dryland ecosystems are highly vulnerable to human activity and the impact of climate change. Characterized by sparse low vegetation cover, the open spaces in between plants are usually exposed to erosion leading to loss of vital resources, decreasing soil fertility and limiting plant productivity. However, interplant spaces in drylands, when left u...

Inoculation of soils with cyanobacteria is proposed as a sustainable biotechnological technique for restoration of degraded areas in drylands due to the important role that cyanobacteria and their exopolysaccharides (EPS) play in the environment. So far, few studies have analyzed the macromolecular and chemical characteristics of the polysaccharidi...

Biological soil crust, or biocrust communities, are the dominating lifeform in many extreme habitats, such as arid and semiarid badlands, where water scarcity and highly erodible substrates limit vegetation cover. While climate, soil and biotic factors have been described as environmental filters influencing biocrust distribution in such biomes, li...

Chlorophyll a concentration (Chla) is a well-proven proxy of biocrust development, photosynthetic organisms' status, and recovery monitoring after environmental disturbances. However, laboratory methods for the analysis of chlorophyll require destructive sampling and are expensive and time consuming. Indirect estimation of chlorophyll a by means of...

Cyanobacteria are key microbes in topsoil communities that have important roles in preventing soil erosion, carbon and nitrogen fixation, and influencing soil hydrology. However, little is known regarding the identity and distribution of the microbial components in the photosynthetic assemblages that form a cohesive biological soil crust (biocrust)...

Buried soil crusts can be interpreted as signs of recent past erosive processes in soils where present visual conditions and hydrological monitoring results state as stable surfaces. Soil micromorphology of many thin sections from the Tabernas desert badlands provided the material for this study.

Biocrusts are a critical biological community that represents one of the most important photosynthetic biomass pools in dryland regions. Thus, they play an important role in CO2 fluxes in these regions, where water availability limits vascular plant growth and development. The effect of biocrusts on CO2 fluxes was expected to be controlled by the i...

runoff generation in badlands

Aims Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) are widespread in many drylands, where plant growth is limited due to water scarcity. One of their most important functions is the stabilization of the topsoil, particularly in regions with sandy soils prone to desertification. Since the mechanisms playing a role in soil stabilization are poorly understood,...

In recent years, soil inoculation with cyanobacteria has become one of the most promising biotechnological strategies for restoring soil functionality in degraded drylands because of their critical role in increasing soil fertility and preventing erosion. Nevertheless, in order to fully exploit this biotechnology on a large scale, it must still be...

Cyanobacteria are ubiquitous components of biocrust communities and the first colonizers of terrestrial ecosystems. They play multiple roles in the soil by fixing C and N and synthesizing exopolysaccharides, which increase soil fertility and water retention and improve soil structure and stability. Application of cyanobacteria as inoculants to prom...

Dryland vegetation is limited by water scarcity, and usually appears in the form of sparsely distributed patches within a heterogeneous unvegetated matrix often covered by biological soil crust. Biocrusts usually act as runoff sources, whereas vegetation acts as sinks, reinfiltrating most of the run‐on from upstream biocrusted areas. Alteration of...

Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) are communities of cyanobacteria, algae, microfungi, lichens and bryophytes in varying proportions, which live within or immediately on top of the uppermost millimeters of the soil in arid and semiarid regions. As biocrusts are highly relevant for ecosystem processes like carbon, nitrogen, and water cycling, a cor...

No-till management and the establishment of plant cover have been implemented in olive crops in recent years in order to prevent soil erosion and increase soil organic carbon. However, the effect of these conservation practices on the net CO2 exchange at the ecosystem scale has not been explored so far. In this study, we analyze the influence of re...

Land degradation by erosion is especially important in drylands, which are among the most vulnerable to disturbance by human activity or climate change. Biocrusts are an essential surface component of these ecosystems and one of the most important contributors to surface resistance and stability, and therefore, keeping soil fertile in these nutrien...

Biological soil crusts or biocrusts are widespread components in drylands where they are known to play key roles in numerous ecosystem processes. By forming microbiotic assemblages on the soil surface, biocrusts strongly protect soils from raindrop impact and the erosive action of overland flow, constituting one of the main protective agents from s...

Restoration of degraded soils from arid and semiarid regions has been traditionally focused on increasing soil retention by the establishment of a plant cover. However, the higher temperatures and the limited water resources in these regions result in low survival rates. Under these conditions, vegetation restoration is slow and a previous stage th...

Terrestrial laser scanning (TLS), widely known as light detection and ranging (LiDAR) technology, is increasingly used to provide highly detailed digital terrain models (DTM) with millimetric precision and accuracy. In order to generate a DTM, TLS data has to be filtered from undesired spurious objects, such as vegetation, artificial structures, et...

Land degradation by erosion is especially important in drylands, which are among the most vulnerable to disturbance by human activity or climate change. Biocrusts are an essential surface component of these ecosystems and one of the most important contributors to surface resistance and stability, and therefore, keeping soil fertile in these nutrien...

Biocrusts exert a strong influence on hydrological processes in drylands by modifying numerous soil properties that affect water retention and movement in soils. Yet, their role in these processes is not clearly understood due to the large number of factors that act simultaneously and can mask the biocrust effect. The influence of biocrusts on soil...

Biocrusts are widespread soil components in drylands all over the world. They are known to play key roles in the functioning of these regions by fixing carbon and nitrogen, regulating hydrological processes, and preventing from water and wind erosion, thus reducing the loss of soil resources and increasing soil fertility. The rate and magnitude of...

Since publication of the first Ecological Stides volume on biological soil crusts (biocrusts) in 2003, numerous studies have been conducted trying to understand the role of biocrusts in runoff generation and water erosion. Most of them considered these communities as one of the most important stabilizing factors dryland regions. However, these stud...

Biocrusts play crucial roles in hydrological processes by controlling soil water availability and regulating water redistribution from source to sink areas. Most studies have examined the influence of biocrusts on isolated components of the soil water balance, but few have addressed this matter from an integrated point of view, involving their infl...

Biocrusts are intimate associations between soil particles and lichens, mosses, fungi, cyanobacteria, algae, and other bacteria that live within or on the very top of the soil surface. It is broadly accepted that biocrusts constitute powerful protective agents against water erosion in drylands. However, this effect has been demonstrated only at the...

Commercial chambers for in vivo gas exchange are usually designed to measure on vascular plants, but not on cryptogams and other organisms forming biological soil crusts (BSCs). We have therefore designed two versions of a chamber with different volumes for determining CO2 exchange with a portable photosynthesis system, for three main purposes: (1)...

In arid and semiarid ecosystems, plant interspaces are frequently covered by communities of cyanobacteria, algae, lichens and mosses, known as biocrusts. These crusts often act as runoff sources and are involved in soil stabilization and fertility, as they prevent erosion by water and wind, fix atmospheric C and N and contribute large amounts of C...

Interplant spaces in arid and semiarid areas are frequently covered by biological soil crusts (BSCs). These crusts influence hydrological processes and strongly protect soils from water erosion. However, BSCs are easily disturbed by human activities, fact that may have strong implications on runoff and erosion dynamics in arid and semiarid lands. T...

Biological soil crusts (BSC) are a complex communities formed by a close association of soil particles and cyanobacteria, algae, microfungi, lichens or bryophytes that live within or immediately on top of the uppermost millimeters of the soil surface. These communities cover non vegetated areas in most of the arid and semiarid ecosystems, and modif...

Biocrusts usually act as sources of runoff and are involved in the stabilization and fertility of soils in arid and semiarid regions. Distribution of water and nutrients provided by biocrusts via runoff may be essential in maintaining plant productivity, reason why their disturbance can have profound implications on ecosystem functioning. In this s...

Biological soil crusts (BSC) are considered one of the main protective agents against water erosion in drylands. However, their protective effect disappears when they are disturbed by human actions that strongly affect their cover, and these effects may affect the whole system response. So, BSC effects need to be incorporated in erosion models, to...

Biological soil crusts (BSCs) cover non-vegetated areas in most arid and semiarid ecosystems. BSCs play a crucial role in the redistribution of water and sediments and, ultimately, in the maintenance of ecosystem function. The effects of BSCs on water infiltration are complex. BSCs increase porosity and micro-topography, thus enhancing infiltration...

Las zonas de badlands son paisajes muy activos y apropiados para el estudio de los procesos geomorfológicos. Estos sistemas presentan una respuesta muy rápida frente a los agentes erosivos, controlada principalmente por la generación de escorrentía capaz de exportar sedimentos fuera del sistema. La respuesta hidrológica de este tipo de sistemas es...

Evaporation of soil moisture is one of the most important processes affecting water availability in semiarid ecosystems. Biological soil crusts, which are widely distributed ground cover in these ecosystems, play a recognized role on water processes. Where they roughen surfaces, water residence time and thus infiltration can be greatly enhanced, wh...

Arid and semiarid crusted ecosystems occupy a large extent of the Earth's surface. In these ecosystems there is a delicate balance between C sequestration and biodegradation that could easily be altered due to human disturbance or global warming. These environments are characterized by the presence of biological soil crusts (BSCs) coexisting with s...

Terrestrial laser scanners (TLS) enable the acquisition of accurate tridimensional point clouds that allow the generation of high resolution digital terrain models (DTM) , permitting a wide range of applications in geomorphologic studies. These studies focus on the analysis of soil surfaces, where vegetation filtering is quite important. Filtering...

Las zonas áridas y semiáridas son sistemas heterogéneos formados por una matriz compleja de manchas vegetadas y no vegetadas que presentan comportamientos hidrológicos contrastados. Estas manchas se organizan siguiendo patrones espaciales bien definidos, generalmente condicionados por la disponibilidad de agua en el medio. Las manchas no vegetadas...

Runoff in arid and semiarid areas is characterized by high spatial and temporal variability. The spatial component is largely associated with the high spatial heterogeneity of soil surface attributes, such as vegetation and rock fragment covers, topography, and soil crust typology. Biological soil crusts (BSCs) are a common soil cover in arid and s...

Soil surface roughness has a strong influence on runoff and erosion, affecting surface storage capacity, water flow routing and velocity, and modifying runoff rates. It also reduces soil detachment by raindrops and the shear effect of water flow on the soil surface. In arid and semiarid ecosystems, biological soil crusts (BSCs) commonly appear in c...

Water and nutrients are scarce resources in arid and semiarid ecosystems. In these regions, biological soil crusts (BSCs) occupy a large part of the soil surface in the open spaces surrounding patches of vegetation. BSCs affect physicochemical soil properties, such as aggregate stability, water retention, organic carbon (OC) and nitrogen (N) conten...

In arid and semiarid ecosystems, where plant cover is scarce, other surface components like soil crusts or stones acquire a very relevant role on local hydrologic regimes, controlling infiltration rates and they also affect erosion. The interplant spaces of these ecosystems are very often covered by biological soil crusts (BSCs), which are a commun...

Biological soil crusts (BSCs) are considered a key element in the functioning of arid and semiarid ecosystems as they modify numerous soil surface properties involved in primary ecosystem processes such as hydrological and erosion processes, and nutrient cycling.. It is known that arid and semiarid ecosystems are conformed by a complex matrix of ve...

In water-limited ecosystems, water becomes the most important driver for plant productivity. In these systems, spatial distribution of water resources is not random but organized into a mosaic of water-depletion areas linked to water-accumulation areas. In other words, water is transferred from interplant patches that act as source areas to vegetat...

Soil crusts influence many soil parameters that affect how water moves into and through the soil, and therefore, critically influence water availability, erosion processes, nutrient fluxes, and vegetation distribution patterns in semiarid ecosystems. Soil crusts are quite sensitive to disturbance, and their alteration can lead to modification of th...