The BIODESERT survey: assessing the impacts of grazing on the structure and functioning of global drylands
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Title: | The BIODESERT survey: assessing the impacts of grazing on the structure and functioning of global drylands |
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Authors: | Maestre, Fernando T. | Eldridge, David J. | Gross, Nicolas | Le Bagousse-Pinguet, Yoann | Saiz, Hugo | Gozalo, Beatriz | Ochoa, Victoria | Gaitán, Juan J. |
Research Group/s: | Laboratorio de Ecología de Zonas Áridas y Cambio Global (DRYLAB) |
Center, Department or Service: | Universidad de Alicante. Departamento de Ecología | Universidad de Alicante. Instituto Multidisciplinar para el Estudio del Medio "Ramón Margalef" |
Keywords: | Grazing | Drylands | Desertification | BIODESERT |
Issue Date: | 24-Nov-2022 |
Publisher: | Copernicus Publications | European Ecological Federation (EEF) |
Citation: | Web Ecology. 2022, 22: 75-96. https://doi.org/10.5194/we-22-75-2022 |
Abstract: | Grazing by domestic livestock is both the main land use across drylands worldwide and a major desertification and global change driver. The ecological consequences of this key human activity have been studied for decades, and there is a wealth of information on its impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem processes. However, most field assessments of the ecological impacts of grazing on drylands conducted to date have been carried out at local or regional scales and have focused on single ecosystem attributes (e.g., plant productivity) or particular taxa (mainly aboveground, e.g., plants). Here we introduce the BIODESERT survey, the first systematic field survey devoted to evaluating the joint impacts of grazing by domestic livestock and climate on the structure and functioning of dryland ecosystems worldwide. This collaborative global survey was carried out between 2016 and 2019 and has involved the collection of field data and plant, biocrust, and soil samples from a total of 326 45 m × 45 m plots from 98 sites located in 25 countries from 6 continents. Here we describe the major characteristics and the field protocols used in this survey. We also introduce the organizational aspects followed, as these can be helpful to everyone wishing to establish a global collaborative network of researchers. The BIODESERT survey provides baseline data to assess the current status of dryland rangelands worldwide and the impacts of grazing on these key ecosystems, and it constitutes a good example of the power of collaborative research networks to study the ecology of our planet using much-needed field data. |
Sponsor: | This research has been supported by the European Research Council (ERC grant agreement no. 647038 – BIODESERT) and the Conselleria de Innovación, Universidades, Ciencia y Sociedad Digital, Generalitat Valenciana (grant no. CIDEGENT/2018/041). Nicolas Gross was supported by CAP 20-25 (16-IDEX-0001) and the AgreenSkills+ fellowship program which has received funding from the EU's Seventh Framework Programme under grant agreement no. 996 FP7-609398 (AgreenSkills+ contract). Hugo Saiz is supported by a María Zambrano fellowship funded by the Ministry of Universities and European Union Next Generation plan. |
URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/10045/129839 |
ISSN: | 1399-1183 |
DOI: | 10.5194/we-22-75-2022 |
Language: | eng |
Type: | info:eu-repo/semantics/article |
Rights: | © Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. |
Peer Review: | si |
Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.5194/we-22-75-2022 |
Appears in Collections: | Research funded by the EU INV - DRYLAB - Artículos de Revistas |
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File | Description | Size | Format | |
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Maestre_etal_2022_WebEcol.pdf | 16,31 MB | Adobe PDF | Open Preview | |
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