Articles | Volume 14, issue 24
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-14-5775-2017
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-14-5775-2017
Research article
 | 
22 Dec 2017
Research article |  | 22 Dec 2017

Bryophyte-dominated biological soil crusts mitigate soil erosion in an early successional Chinese subtropical forest

Steffen Seitz, Martin Nebel, Philipp Goebes, Kathrin Käppeler, Karsten Schmidt, Xuezheng Shi, Zhengshan Song, Carla L. Webber, Bettina Weber, and Thomas Scholten

Related authors

Short communication: Concentrated impacts by tree canopy drips – hotspots of soil erosion in forests
Ayumi Katayama, Kazuki Nanko, Seonghun Jeong, Tomonori Kume, Yoshinori Shinohara, and Steffen Seitz
Earth Surf. Dynam., 11, 1275–1282, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-11-1275-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-11-1275-2023, 2023
Short summary
Rainfall redistribution in subtropical Chinese forests changes over 22 years
Wanjun Zhang, Thomas Scholten, Steffen Seitz, Qianmei Zhang, Guowei Chu, Linhua Wang, and Juxiu Liu
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2789,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2789, 2023
Short summary
Biocrust-linked changes in soil aggregate stability along a climatic gradient in the Chilean Coastal Range
Nicolás Riveras-Muñoz, Steffen Seitz, Kristina Witzgall, Victoria Rodríguez, Peter Kühn, Carsten W. Mueller, Rómulo Oses, Oscar Seguel, Dirk Wagner, and Thomas Scholten
SOIL, 8, 717–731, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-8-717-2022,https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-8-717-2022, 2022
Short summary
Pioneer biocrust communities prevent soil erosion in temperate forests after disturbances
Corinna Gall, Martin Nebel, Dietmar Quandt, Thomas Scholten, and Steffen Seitz
Biogeosciences, 19, 3225–3245, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-3225-2022,https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-3225-2022, 2022
Short summary
Tree species and functional traits but not species richness affect interrill erosion processes in young subtropical forests
S. Seitz, P. Goebes, Z. Song, H. Bruelheide, W. Härdtle, P. Kühn, Y. Li, and T. Scholten
SOIL, 2, 49–61, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-2-49-2016,https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-2-49-2016, 2016
Short summary

Related subject area

Biodiversity and Ecosystem Function: Terrestrial
From simple labels to semantic image segmentation: leveraging citizen science plant photographs for tree species mapping in drone imagery
Salim Soltani, Olga Ferlian, Nico Eisenhauer, Hannes Feilhauer, and Teja Kattenborn
Biogeosciences, 21, 2909–2935, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-2909-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-2909-2024, 2024
Short summary
Plant functional traits modulate the effects of soil acidification on above- and belowground biomass
Xue Feng, Ruzhen Wang, Tianpeng Li, Jiangping Cai, Heyong Liu, Hui Li, and Yong Jiang
Biogeosciences, 21, 2641–2653, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-2641-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-2641-2024, 2024
Short summary
Regional effects and local climate jointly shape the global distribution of sexual systems in woody flowering plants
Minhua Zhang, Xiaoqing Hu, and Fangliang He
Biogeosciences, 21, 2133–2142, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-2133-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-2133-2024, 2024
Short summary
Ideas and perspectives: Sensing energy and matter fluxes in a biota-dominated Patagonian landscape through environmental seismology – introducing the Pumalín Critical Zone Observatory
Christian H. Mohr, Michael Dietze, Violeta Tolorza, Erwin Gonzalez, Benjamin Sotomayor, Andres Iroume, Sten Gilfert, and Frieder Tautz
Biogeosciences, 21, 1583–1599, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-1583-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-1583-2024, 2024
Short summary
Comparison of carbon and water fluxes and the drivers of ecosystem water use efficiency in a temperate rainforest and a peatland in southern South America
Jorge F. Perez-Quezada, David Trejo, Javier Lopatin, David Aguilera, Bruce Osborne, Mauricio Galleguillos, Luca Zattera, Juan L. Celis-Diez, and Juan J. Armesto
Biogeosciences, 21, 1371–1389, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-1371-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-1371-2024, 2024
Short summary

Cited articles

Allen, C. D.: Biogeomorphology and biological soil crusts: a symbiotic research relationship, Geomorphologie, 16, 347–358, https://doi.org/10.4000/geomorphologie.8071, 2010.
Barnes, B. V. and Spurr, S. H.: Forest Ecology, 4th ed., Wiley, New York, 774 pp., 1998.
Beck, E., Hartig, K., Roos, K., Preußig, M., and Nebel, M.: Permanent removal of the forest: construction of roads and power supply lines, in: Gradients in a Tropical Mountain Ecosystem of Ecuador, edited by: Beck, E., Ecological Studies, vol. 198, Springer, Berlin, 361–370, 2008.
Behrens, T., Schmidt, K., and Scholten, T.: An approach to removing uncertainities in nominal environmental covariates and soil class maps, in: Digital Soil Mapping with Limited Data, edited by: Hartemink, A. E., McBratney, A. B., Mendonça-Santos, Maria de Lourdes, Springer, Dordrecht, London, 213–224, 2008.
Belnap, J.: The potential roles of biological soil crusts in dryland hydrologic cycles, Hydrol. Process., 20, 3159–3178, https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.6325, 2006.
Download
Short summary
This study investigated biological soil crusts (biocrusts, e.g. cyanobacteria and mosses) within an early-stage mesic subtropical forest in China, where they were particularly abundant. Biocrust covers significantly decreased soil erosion and were more effective in erosion reduction than stone cover. Hence, they play an important role in mitigating soil erosion under forest and are of particular interest for erosion control in forest plantations.
Altmetrics
Final-revised paper
Preprint