Journal
ECOSYSTEMS
Volume 13, Issue 8, Pages 1239-1255Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s10021-010-9384-8
Keywords
ecohydrology; spatial autocorrelation; grassland; shrubland; structure; function; land degradation
Categories
Funding
- NSF at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge [DEB-0217774]
- NSF at Sevilleta
- University of Sheffield
- Worshipful Company of Farmers
- Royal Society
- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
- NSF Central Arizona Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research [DEB-0423704]
- Division Of Environmental Biology
- Direct For Biological Sciences [1026865] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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In this study, we investigate changes in ecosystem structure that occur over a gradient of land-degradation in the southwestern USA, where shrubs are encroaching into native grassland. We evaluate a conceptual model which posits that the development of biotic and abiotic structural connectivity is due to ecogeomorphic feedbacks. Three hypotheses are evaluated: 1. Over the shrub-encroachment gradient, the difference in soil properties under each surface-cover type will change non-linearly, becoming increasingly different; 2. There will be a reduction in vegetation cover and an increase in vegetation-patch size that is concurrent with an increase in the spatial heterogeneity of soil properties over the shrub-encroachment gradient; and 3. Over the shrub-encroachment gradient, the range at which soil properties are autocorrelated will progressively exceed the range at which vegetation is autocorrelated. Field-based monitoring of vegetation and soil properties was carried out over a shrub-encroachment gradient at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico, USA. Results of this study show that vegetation cover decreases over the shrub-encroachment gradient, but vegetation-patch size increases, with a concurrent increase in the spatial heterogeneity of soil properties. Typically, there are significant differences in soil properties between non-vegetated and vegetated surfaces, but for grass and shrub patches, there are only significant differences for the biotic soil properties. Results suggest that it is the development of larger, well-connected, non-vegetated patches that is most important in driving the overall behavior of shrub-dominated sites. Results of this study support the hypothesis that feedbacks of functional connectivity reinforce the development of structural connectivity, which increases the resilience of the shrub-dominated state, and thus makes it harder for grasses to re-establish and reverse the vegetation change.
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