caa a22 4500 445384212 CHVBK 20180317143027.0 cr unu---uuuuu 170323e20110801xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s10021-011-9449-3 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s10021-011-9449-3 Biological Soil Crust Microsites Are the Main Contributor to Soil Respiration in a Semiarid Ecosystem [Elektronische Daten] [Andrea Castillo-Monroy, Fernando Maestre, Ana Rey, Santiago Soliveres, Pablo García-Palacios] Biological soil crusts (BSCs) are a key biotic component of dryland ecosystems worldwide. However, most studies carried out to date on carbon (C) fluxes in these ecosystems, such as soil respiration, have neglected them. We conducted a 3.5-year field experiment to evaluate the spatio-temporal heterogeneity of soil respiration in a semiarid Stipa tenacissima steppe and to assess the contribution of BSC-dominated areas to the annual soil respiration of the whole ecosystem. We selected the six most frequent microsites in the study area: Stipa tussocks (ST), Retama sphaerocarpa shrubs (RS), and open areas with very low (<5% BSC cover, BS), low, medium and high cover of well-developed BSCs. Soil respiration rates did not differ among BSC-dominated microsites but were significantly higher and lower than those found in BS and ST microsites, respectively. A model using soil temperature and soil moisture accounted for over 85% of the temporal variation in soil respiration throughout the studied period. Using this model, we estimated a range of 240.4-322.6gCm−2y−1 released by soil respiration at our study area. Vegetated (ST and RS) and BSC-dominated microsites accounted for 37 and 42% of this amount, respectively. Our results indicate that accounting for the spatial heterogeneity in soil respiration induced by BSCs is crucial to provide accurate estimations of this flux at the ecosystem level. They also highlight that BSC-dominated areas are the main contributor to the total C released by soil respiration and, therefore, must be considered when estimating C budgets in drylands. Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 2011 soil respiration nationallicence biological soil crusts nationallicence Q 10 nationallicence climate change nationallicence semiarid nationallicence Stipa tenacissima nationallicence Retama sphaerocarpa nationallicence Castillo-Monroy Andrea Área de Biodiversidad y Conservación, Departamento de Biología y Geología, Escuela Superior de Ciencias Experimentales y Tecnología, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, 28933, Móstoles, Spain aut Maestre Fernando Área de Biodiversidad y Conservación, Departamento de Biología y Geología, Escuela Superior de Ciencias Experimentales y Tecnología, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, 28933, Móstoles, Spain aut Rey Ana Estación Experimental de Zonas Áridas, EEZA-CSIC, Crta. de Sacramento s/n, La Cañada de San Urbano, 04120, Almería, Spain aut Soliveres Santiago Área de Biodiversidad y Conservación, Departamento de Biología y Geología, Escuela Superior de Ciencias Experimentales y Tecnología, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, 28933, Móstoles, Spain aut García-Palacios Pablo Área de Biodiversidad y Conservación, Departamento de Biología y Geología, Escuela Superior de Ciencias Experimentales y Tecnología, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, 28933, Móstoles, Spain aut Ecosystems Springer-Verlag 14/5(2011-08-01), 835-847 1432-9840 14:5<835 2011 14 10021 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-011-9449-3 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-011-9449-3 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Castillo-Monroy Andrea Área de Biodiversidad y Conservación, Departamento de Biología y Geología, Escuela Superior de Ciencias Experimentales y Tecnología, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, 28933, Móstoles, Spain aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Maestre Fernando Área de Biodiversidad y Conservación, Departamento de Biología y Geología, Escuela Superior de Ciencias Experimentales y Tecnología, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, 28933, Móstoles, Spain aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Rey Ana Estación Experimental de Zonas Áridas, EEZA-CSIC, Crta. de Sacramento s/n, La Cañada de San Urbano, 04120, Almería, Spain aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Soliveres Santiago Área de Biodiversidad y Conservación, Departamento de Biología y Geología, Escuela Superior de Ciencias Experimentales y Tecnología, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, 28933, Móstoles, Spain aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- García-Palacios Pablo Área de Biodiversidad y Conservación, Departamento de Biología y Geología, Escuela Superior de Ciencias Experimentales y Tecnología, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, 28933, Móstoles, Spain aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Ecosystems Springer-Verlag 14/5(2011-08-01), 835-847 1432-9840 14:5<835 2011 14 10021 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer