Exploring interactions among biological soil crusts, plant germination, and morphological seed traits: implications for plant community assembly and dryland restoration
Date
2023
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Abstract
Arid and semi-arid (dryland) ecosystems make up over 40% of our plant's terrestrial surface and are incredibly vulnerable to land degradation. To combat dryland degradation, active plant and soil restoration is often needed and the role of plant-soil microbe interactions can be key to dryland restoration trajectories. Within drylands, biological soil crusts (biocrusts), collections of cyanobacteria, algae, lichen, and moss are key surface communities that influence soil processes (e.g., stability, nutrient cycling, hydrology) and can thereby strongly influence recruitment of dryland plants. These biocrusts may interact with plant functional traits (i.e., seed morphological traits), and these interactions can influence germination. However, much is still unknown about mechanisms that underlie these interactions and how plant functional traits mediate effects of biocrusts on plant germination. To investigate these knowledge gaps, I conducted two studies: (Chapter 1) a global meta-analysis of the role of morphological seed traits in determining biocrust effects on germination, and (Chapter 2) a full-factorial greenhouse study examining the effects of biocrust inoculum cover treatments and plant functional traits on plant recruitment to investigate questions about how biocrust heterogeneity and biotic components of biocrusts in the context of restoration. To explore effects of morphological seed traits on plant germination responses to biocrusts (Ch. 1), we compiled a global database of 491 studies of biocrust effects on plant germination encompassing 101 unique plant species and their associated morphological seed traits. For the greenhouse study (Ch. 2) we seeded two seed mixes on three different inoculum cover treatments (i.e., 0%, 30%, and 100%) using both biologically active (live) and autoclaved biocrust inoculum, to assess effects of cover heterogeneity, biological biocrust activity, and plant functional traits on percent germination. Results from the meta-analysis showed that morphological seed traits do mediate plant germination responses to biocrusts, and that, in general, germination of smaller seeded species with appendages was increased by biocrusts. Results from the greenhouse study showed that, in a restoration context, increasing cover of biocrust inoculum increases plant germination, and that these effects were explained by physical rather than biotic effects of inoculum on germination. As in Chapter 1, we found that biocrusts effect on germination differed across plant functional groups and that seed traits also influenced germination responses to biocrust inoculum cover treatments. Together, both studies showed that morphological seed traits mediate effects of biocrusts on plant germination. These findings increase understanding of the role of biocrusts in determining dryland plant community assembly and have implications for dryland restoration.