Articles | Volume 10, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-10-763-2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-10-763-2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Review article
| 
24 Oct 2024
Review article |
| 24 Oct 2024
| 24 Oct 2024
Advancing studies on global biocrust distribution
Siqing Wang
State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems, College of Ecology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu 730000, PR China
Yuzhong Mountain Ecosystems Observation and Research Station, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu 730000, PR China
Li Ma
State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems, College of Ecology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu 730000, PR China
Yuzhong Mountain Ecosystems Observation and Research Station, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu 730000, PR China
Liping Yang
State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems, College of Ecology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu 730000, PR China
Yuzhong Mountain Ecosystems Observation and Research Station, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu 730000, PR China
Yali Ma
State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems, College of Ecology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu 730000, PR China
Yuzhong Mountain Ecosystems Observation and Research Station, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu 730000, PR China
Yafeng Zhang
Key Laboratory of Ecological Safety and Sustainable Development in Arid Lands, Lanzhou, Gansu 730000, PR China
Shapotou Desert Research and Experiment Station, Northwest Institute of EcoEnvironment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, Gansu 730000, PR China
Changming Zhao
State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems, College of Ecology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu 730000, PR China
Yuzhong Mountain Ecosystems Observation and Research Station, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu 730000, PR China
State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems, College of Ecology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu 730000, PR China
Yuzhong Mountain Ecosystems Observation and Research Station, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu 730000, PR China
Instituto Multidisciplinar para el Estudio del Medio “Ramon Margalef”, Universidad de Alicante, Carretera de San Vicente del Raspeig s/n, San Vicente del Raspeig Alicante 03690, Spain
Related subject area
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Mineral dust and pedogenesis in the alpine critical zone
The soil knowledge library (KLIB) – a structured literature database on soil process research
Masked diversity and contrasting soil processes in tropical seagrass meadows: the control of environmental settings
Biocrust-linked changes in soil aggregate stability along a climatic gradient in the Chilean Coastal Range
Content of soil organic carbon and labile fractions depend on local combinations of mineral-phase characteristics
Effects of environmental factors and soil properties on soil organic carbon stock in a natural dry tropical area of Cameroon
The role of ecosystem engineers in shaping the diversity and function of arid soil bacterial communities
SoilGrids 2.0: producing soil information for the globe with quantified spatial uncertainty
Disaggregating a regional-extent digital soil map using Bayesian area-to-point regression kriging for farm-scale soil carbon assessment
Opportunities and limitations related to the application of plant-derived lipid molecular proxies in soil science
Spatial variability in soil organic carbon in a tropical montane landscape: associations between soil organic carbon and land use, soil properties, vegetation, and topography vary across plot to landscape scales
A probabilistic approach to quantifying soil physical properties via time-integrated energy and mass input
Arctic soil development on a series of marine terraces on central Spitsbergen, Svalbard: a combined geochronology, fieldwork and modelling approach
Local versus field scale soil heterogeneity characterization – a challenge for representative sampling in pollution studies
Analysis and definition of potential new areas for viticulture in the Azores (Portugal)
The interdisciplinary nature of SOIL
Jeffrey S. Munroe, Abigail A. Santis, Elsa J. Soderstrom, Michael J. Tappa, and Ann M. Bauer
SOIL, 10, 167–187, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-10-167-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-10-167-2024, 2024
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This study investigated how the deposition of mineral dust delivered by the wind influences soil development in mountain environments. At six mountain locations in the southwestern United States, modern dust was collected along with samples of soil and local bedrock. Analysis indicates that at all sites the properties of dust and soil are very similar and are very different from underlying rock. This result indicates that soils are predominantly composed of dust delivered by the wind over time.
Hans-Jörg Vogel, Bibiana Betancur-Corredor, Leonard Franke, Sara König, Birgit Lang, Maik Lucas, Eva Rabot, Bastian Stößel, Ulrich Weller, Martin Wiesmeier, and Ute Wollschläger
SOIL, 9, 533–543, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-9-533-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-9-533-2023, 2023
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Our paper presents a new web-based software tool to support soil process research. It is designed to categorize publications in this field according to site and soil characteristics, as well as experimental conditions, which is of critical importance for the interpretation of the research results. The software tool is provided open access for the soil science community such that anyone can contribute to improve the contents of the literature data base.
Gabriel Nuto Nóbrega, Xosé L. Otero, Danilo Jefferson Romero, Hermano Melo Queiroz, Daniel Gorman, Margareth da Silva Copertino, Marisa de Cássia Piccolo, and Tiago Osório Ferreira
SOIL, 9, 189–208, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-9-189-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-9-189-2023, 2023
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The present study addresses the soil information gap in tropical seagrass meadows. The different geological and bioclimatic settings caused a relevant soil diversity. Contrasting geochemical conditions promote different intensities of soil processes. Seagrass soils from the northeastern semiarid coast are marked by a more intense sulfidization. Understanding soil processes may help in the sustainable management of seagrasses.
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
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Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) stabilize the soil surface mainly in arid regions but are also present in Mediterranean and humid climates. We studied this stabilizing effect through wet and dry sieving along a large climatic gradient in Chile and found that the stabilization of soil aggregates persists in all climates, but their role is masked and reserved for a limited number of size fractions under humid conditions by higher vegetation and organic matter contents in the topsoil.
Malte Ortner, Michael Seidel, Sebastian Semella, Thomas Udelhoven, Michael Vohland, and Sören Thiele-Bruhn
SOIL, 8, 113–131, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-8-113-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-8-113-2022, 2022
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Soil organic carbon (SOC) and its labile fractions are influenced by soil use and mineral properties. These parameters interact with each other and affect SOC differently depending on local conditions. To investigate the latter, the dependence of SOC content on parameters that vary on a local scale depending on parent material, soil texture, and land use as well as parameter combinations was statistically assessed. Relevance and superiority of local models compared to total models were shown.
Désiré Tsozué, Nérine Mabelle Moudjie Noubissie, Estelle Lionelle Tamto Mamdem, Simon Djakba Basga, and Dieudonne Lucien Bitom Oyono
SOIL, 7, 677–691, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-7-677-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-7-677-2021, 2021
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Studies on soil organic carbon stock (SOCS) in the Sudano-Sahelian part of Cameroon are very rare. Organic C storage decreases with increasing latitude and more than 60 % of the SOCS is stored below the first 25 cm depth. In addition, a good correlation is noted between precipitation which decreases with increasing latitude and the total SOCS, indicating the importance of climate in the distribution of the total SOCS in the study area, which directly influence the productivity of the vegetation.
Capucine Baubin, Arielle M. Farrell, Adam Št'ovíček, Lusine Ghazaryan, Itamar Giladi, and Osnat Gillor
SOIL, 7, 611–637, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-7-611-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-7-611-2021, 2021
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In this paper, we describe changes in desert soil bacterial diversity and function when two ecosystem engineers, shrubs and ant nests, in an arid environment are present. The results show that bacterial activity increases when there are ecosystem engineers and that their impact is non-additive. This is one of a handful of studies that investigated the separate and combined effects of ecosystem engineers on soil bacterial communities investigating both composition and function.
Laura Poggio, Luis M. de Sousa, Niels H. Batjes, Gerard B. M. Heuvelink, Bas Kempen, Eloi Ribeiro, and David Rossiter
SOIL, 7, 217–240, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-7-217-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-7-217-2021, 2021
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This paper focuses on the production of global maps of soil properties with quantified spatial uncertainty, as implemented in the SoilGrids version 2.0 product using DSM practices and adapting them for global digital soil mapping with legacy data. The quantitative evaluation showed metrics in line with previous studies. The qualitative evaluation showed that coarse-scale patterns are well reproduced. The spatial uncertainty at global scale highlighted the need for more soil observations.
Sanjeewani Nimalka Somarathna Pallegedara Dewage, Budiman Minasny, and Brendan Malone
SOIL, 6, 359–369, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-6-359-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-6-359-2020, 2020
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Most soil management activities are implemented at farm scale, yet digital soil maps are commonly available at regional/national scales. This study proposes Bayesian area-to-point kriging to downscale regional-/national-scale soil property maps to farm scale. A regional soil carbon map with a resolution of 100 m (block support) was disaggregated to 10 m (point support) information for a farm in northern NSW, Australia. Results are presented with the uncertainty of the downscaling process.
Boris Jansen and Guido L. B. Wiesenberg
SOIL, 3, 211–234, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-3-211-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-3-211-2017, 2017
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The application of lipids in soils as molecular proxies, also often referred to as biomarkers, has dramatically increased in the last decades. Applications range from inferring changes in past vegetation composition to unraveling the turnover of soil organic matter. However, the application of soil lipids as molecular proxies comes with several constraining factors. Here we provide a critical review of the current state of knowledge on the applicability of molecular proxies in soil science.
Marleen de Blécourt, Marife D. Corre, Ekananda Paudel, Rhett D. Harrison, Rainer Brumme, and Edzo Veldkamp
SOIL, 3, 123–137, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-3-123-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-3-123-2017, 2017
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We examined the spatial variability in SOC in a 10 000 ha landscape in SW China. The spatial variability in SOC was largest at the plot scale (1 ha) and the associations between SOC and land use, soil properties, vegetation, and topographical attributes varied across plot to landscape scales. Our results show that sampling designs must consider the controlling factors at the scale of interest in order to elucidate their effects on SOC against the variability within and between plots.
Christopher Shepard, Marcel G. Schaap, Jon D. Pelletier, and Craig Rasmussen
SOIL, 3, 67–82, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-3-67-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-3-67-2017, 2017
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Here we demonstrate the use of a probabilistic approach for quantifying soil physical properties and variability using time and environmental input. We applied this approach to a synthesis of soil chronosequences, i.e., soils that change with time. The model effectively predicted clay content across the soil chronosequences and for soils in complex terrain using soil depth as a proxy for hill slope. This model represents the first attempt to model soils from a probabilistic viewpoint.
W. Marijn van der Meij, Arnaud J. A. M. Temme, Christian M. F. J. J. de Kleijn, Tony Reimann, Gerard B. M. Heuvelink, Zbigniew Zwoliński, Grzegorz Rachlewicz, Krzysztof Rymer, and Michael Sommer
SOIL, 2, 221–240, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-2-221-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-2-221-2016, 2016
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This study combined fieldwork, geochronology and modelling to get a better understanding of Arctic soil development on a landscape scale. Main processes are aeolian deposition, physical and chemical weathering and silt translocation. Discrepancies between model results and field observations showed that soil and landscape development is not as straightforward as we hypothesized. Interactions between landscape processes and soil processes have resulted in a complex soil pattern in the landscape.
Z. Kardanpour, O. S. Jacobsen, and K. H. Esbensen
SOIL, 1, 695–705, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-1-695-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-1-695-2015, 2015
J. Madruga, E. B. Azevedo, J. F. Sampaio, F. Fernandes, F. Reis, and J. Pinheiro
SOIL, 1, 515–526, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-1-515-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-1-515-2015, 2015
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Vineyards in the Azores have been traditionally settled on lava field terroirs whose workability and trafficability limitations make them presently unsustainable.
A landscape zoning approach based on a GIS analysis, incorporating factors of climate and topography combined with the soil mapping units suitable for viticulture was developed in order to define the most representative land units, providing an overall perspective of the potential for expansion of viticulture in the Azores.
E. C. Brevik, A. Cerdà, J. Mataix-Solera, L. Pereg, J. N. Quinton, J. Six, and K. Van Oost
SOIL, 1, 117–129, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-1-117-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-1-117-2015, 2015
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This paper provides a brief accounting of some of the many ways that the study of soils can be interdisciplinary, therefore giving examples of the types of papers we hope to see submitted to SOIL.
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Short summary
Biological soil crusts cover a substantial proportion of dryland ecosystems and play crucial roles in ecological processes. Consequently, studying the spatial distribution of biocrusts holds great significance. This study aimed to stimulate global-scale investigations of biocrust distribution by introducing three major approaches. Then, we summarized present understandings of biocrust distribution. Finally, we proposed several potential research topics.
Biological soil crusts cover a substantial proportion of dryland ecosystems and play crucial...
