TY - JOUR
T1 - Global ecosystem thresholds driven by aridity
AU - Berdugo, Miguel
AU - Delgado-Baquerizo, Manuel
AU - Soliveres, Santiago
AU - Hernández-Clemente, Rocío
AU - Zhao, Yanchuang
AU - Gaitán, Juan J.
AU - Gross, Nicolas
AU - Saiz, Hugo
AU - Maire, Vincent
AU - Lehman, Anika
AU - Rillig, Matthias C.
AU - Solé, Ricard V.
AU - Maestre, Fernando T.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2020 The Authors,
PY - 2020/2/14
Y1 - 2020/2/14
N2 - Aridity, which is increasing worldwide because of climate change, affects the structure and functioning of dryland ecosystems. Whether aridification leads to gradual (versus abrupt) and systemic (versus specific) ecosystem changes is largely unknown. We investigated how 20 structural and functional ecosystem attributes respond to aridity in global drylands. Aridification led to systemic and abrupt changes in multiple ecosystem attributes. These changes occurred sequentially in three phases characterized by abrupt decays in plant productivity, soil fertility, and plant cover and richness at aridity values of 0.54, 0.7, and 0.8, respectively. More than 20% of the terrestrial surface will cross one or several of these thresholds by 2100, which calls for immediate actions to minimize the negative impacts of aridification on essential ecosystem services for the more than 2 billion people living in drylands.
AB - Aridity, which is increasing worldwide because of climate change, affects the structure and functioning of dryland ecosystems. Whether aridification leads to gradual (versus abrupt) and systemic (versus specific) ecosystem changes is largely unknown. We investigated how 20 structural and functional ecosystem attributes respond to aridity in global drylands. Aridification led to systemic and abrupt changes in multiple ecosystem attributes. These changes occurred sequentially in three phases characterized by abrupt decays in plant productivity, soil fertility, and plant cover and richness at aridity values of 0.54, 0.7, and 0.8, respectively. More than 20% of the terrestrial surface will cross one or several of these thresholds by 2100, which calls for immediate actions to minimize the negative impacts of aridification on essential ecosystem services for the more than 2 billion people living in drylands.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85079336209&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1126/science.aay5958
DO - 10.1126/science.aay5958
M3 - Article
C2 - 32054762
AN - SCOPUS:85079336209
SN - 0036-8075
VL - 367
SP - 787
EP - 790
JO - SCIENCE
JF - SCIENCE
IS - 6479
ER -
