Climate change affects deserts

LANZHOU — Researchers have recently revealed the responses of desert ecosystems to climate change through a long-term study on warming and increased drought in desert regions.

The study revealed the longterm effects of warming and drought on key biotic components of desert ecosystems, said Li Xinrong, researcher at the Northwest Institute of Ecoenvironment and Resources with the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Compared with other terrestrial ecosystems, desert ecosystems are low in biological productivity and biodiversity. Thus, the impact of sustained climate change on such regions has not received due attention.

In fact, deserts are the main ecosystems supported by dryland areas, which cover more than 41 percent of the world’s land. Changes in deserts have an impact on the ecological health and sustainable development of dryland areas, Li said.

Over a period of 12 years, the NIEER researchers conducted a manipulative experiment in the Tengger Desert in northwestern China.

They evaluated how both mosses and lichens in biocrust communities responded to the changes in temperature and precipitation.

The researchers found that the responses of dominant species in biocrust communities to warming are variable, and warming significantly reduces the carbon uptake of the moss-dominated crusts.

Their findings also suggest that the combination of warming and drought conditions could increase the dominance of lichens in biocrust communities that can help maintain the multifunctionality of biocrusts in desert ecosystems.

The findings and related study results have been published in the journal Agricultural and Forest Meteorology.