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Hotspots of biogeochemical activity linked to aridity and plant traits across global drylands

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Abstract

Perennial plants create productive and biodiverse hotspots, known as fertile islands, beneath their canopies. These hotspots largely determine the structure and functioning of drylands worldwide. Despite their ubiquity, the factors controlling fertile islands under conditions of contrasting grazing by livestock, the most prevalent land use in drylands, remain virtually unknown. Here we evaluated the relative importance of grazing pressure and herbivore type, climate and plant functional traits on 24 soil physical and chemical attributes that represent proxies of key ecosystem services related to decomposition, soil fertility, and soil and water conservation. To do this, we conducted a standardized global survey of 288 plots at 88 sites in 25 countries worldwide. We show that aridity and plant traits are the major factors associated with the magnitude of plant effects on fertile islands in grazed drylands worldwide. Grazing pressure had little influence on the capacity of plants to support fertile islands. Taller and wider shrubs and grasses supported stronger island effects. Stable and functional soils tended to be linked to species-rich sites with taller plants. Together, our findings dispel the notion that grazing pressure or herbivore type are linked to the formation or intensification of fertile islands in drylands. Rather, our study suggests that changes in aridity, and processes that alter island identity and therefore plant traits, will have marked effects on how perennial plants support and maintain the functioning of drylands in a more arid and grazed world.

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Fig. 1: Average function for the 288 plots at 88 sites across global drylands and examples of fertile islands at selected sites.
Fig. 2: The fertile island effect, as measured with the RII, beneath perennial dryland plants for the 24 soil attributes measured across three functions.
Fig. 3: Impacts of recent grazing and climate on the fertile island effect.
Fig. 4: SEM assessing direct and indirect effects on the fertile island effect.

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Data availability

The data used for this study are available via Figshare67 at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.25283074.v1. The other databases used in this study are: Global Aridity Index and Potential Evapotranspiration Climate Database v2 aridity database (https://cgiarcsi.community/2019/01/24/global-aridity-index-and-potential-evapotranspiration-climate-database-v2/), WorldClim version 2.0 (http://www.worldclim.org/), Woody Plants Database (http://woodyplants.cals.cornell.edu), TRY Database (https://www.try-db.org/TryWeb/Home.php), PLANTS Database (https://plants.usda.gov/) and BROT Database (https://www.uv.es/jgpausas/brot.htm). Source data are provided with this paper.

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Acknowledgements

Funding: This research was supported by the European Research Council (ERC grant 647038 (BIODESERT) awarded to F.T.M.) and Generalitat Valenciana (CIDEGENT/2018/041). D.J.E. was supported by the Hermon Slade Foundation (HSF21040). J. Ding was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China Project (41991232) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China. M.D.-B. acknowledges support from TED2021-130908B-C41/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/Unión Europea Next Generation EU/PRTR and the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation for the I + D + i project PID2020-115813RA-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033. O.S. was supported by US National Science Foundation (Grants DEB 1754106, 20-25166), and Y.L.B.-P. by a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Individual Fellowship (MSCA-1018 IF) within the European Program Horizon 2020 (DRYFUN Project 656035). K.G. and N.B. acknowledge support from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) SPACES projects OPTIMASS (FKZ: 01LL1302A) and ORYCS (FKZ: FKZ01LL1804A). B.B. was supported by the Taylor Family-Asia Foundation Endowed Chair in Ecology and Conservation Biology, and M. Bowker by funding from the School of Forestry, Northern Arizona University. C.B. acknowledges funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41971131). D.B. acknowledges support from the Hungarian Research, Development and Innovation Office (NKFI KKP 144096), and A. Fajardo support from ANID PIA/BASAL FB 210006 and the Millennium Science Initiative Program NCN2021-050. M.F. and H.E. received funding from Ferdowsi University of Mashhad (grant 39843). A.N. and M.K. acknowledge support from FCT (CEECIND/02453/2018/CP1534/CT0001, SFRH/BD/130274/2017, PTDC/ASP-SIL/7743/2020, UIDB/00329/2020), EEA (10/CALL#5), AdaptForGrazing (PRR-C05-i03-I-000035) and LTsER Montado platform (LTER_EU_PT_001) grants. O.V. acknowledges support from the Hungarian Research, Development and Innovation Office (NKFI KKP 144096). L.W. was supported by the US National Science Foundation (EAR 1554894). Y.Z. and X.Z. were supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (U2003214). H.S. is supported by a María Zambrano fellowship funded by the Ministry of Universities and European Union-Next Generation plan. The use of any trade, firm or product names does not imply endorsement by any agency, institution or government. Finally, we thank the many people who assisted with field work and the landowners, corporations and national bodies that allowed us access to their land.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Ecosystem Science, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    David J. Eldridge & Samantha Travers

  2. State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China

    Jingyi Ding

  3. Department of Planning and Environment, Merimbula, New South Wales, Australia

    Josh Dorrough

  4. Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia

    Josh Dorrough

  5. Laboratorio de Biodiversidad y Funcionamiento Ecosistémico, Instituto de Recursos Naturales y Agrobiología de Sevilla (IRNAS), CSIC, Seville, Spain

    Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo

  6. Schools of Life Sciences, School of Sustainability, and Global Drylands Center, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

    Osvaldo Sala

  7. Université Clermont Auvergne, INRAE, VetAgro Sup, Unité Mixte de Recherche Ecosystème Prairial, Clermont-Ferrand, France

    Nicolas Gross

  8. Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, Avignon Université, IRD, IMBE, Aix-en-Provence, France

    Yoann Le Bagousse-Pinguet

  9. Department of Forest Ecology and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Umeå, Sweden

    Max Mallen-Cooper

  10. Departamento de Ciencias Agrarias y Medio Natural, Escuela Politécnica Superior, Instituto Universitario de Investigación en Ciencias Ambientales de Aragón (IUCA), Universidad de Zaragoza, Huesca, Spain

    Hugo Saiz

  11. Instituto Multidisciplinar para el Estudio del Medio ‘Ramón Margalef’, Universidad de Alicante, Alicante, Spain

    Sergio Asensio, Beatriz Gozalo, Emilio Guirado & Jaime Martínez-Valderrama

  12. Instituto de Ciencias Agrarias, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Madrid, Spain

    Victoria Ochoa, César Plaza & Paloma Díaz-Martínez

  13. Departamento de Ingeniería y Morfología del Terreno, Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros de Caminos, Canales y Puertos, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Miguel García-Gómez

  14. Departmento de Biodiversidad, Ecología y Evolución, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Enrique Valencia, Miguel Berdugo & Alberto L. Teixido

  15. Estación Experimental de Zonas Áridas (EEZA), CSIC, Campus UAL, Almería, Spain

    Jaime Martínez-Valderrama

  16. Department of Range Management, Faculty of Natural Resources and Marine Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Noor, Iran

    Mehdi Abedi & Negar Ahmadian

  17. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria, Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Catamarca, Valle Viejo, Argentina

    Rodrigo J. Ahumada & R. Emiliano Quiroga

  18. Instituto Interuniversitario de Investigación del Sistema Tierra de Andalucía, Universidad de Jaén, Jaén, Spain

    Julio M. Alcántara & Pedro Rey

  19. Laboratoire Biodiversité, Biotechnologie, Environnement et Développement Durable (Biodev), Université M’hamed Bougara de Boumerdès, Boumerdès, Algeria

    Fateh Amghar

  20. Departamento de Genética, Ecologia e Evolução, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil

    Luísa Azevedo

  21. Laboratory of Eremology and Combating Desertification (LR16IRA01), IRA, Institut des Régions Arides Medenine, Medenine, Tunisia

    Farah Ben Salem & Roukaya Chibani

  22. Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Miguel Berdugo

  23. Plant Ecology and Nature Conservation, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany

    Niels Blaum & Katja Geissler

  24. Laboratory of Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis, Department of Biology, School of Arts and Sciences, National University of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

    Bazartseren Boldgiv & Anarmaa Sharkhuu

  25. School of Forestry, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA

    Matthew Bowker

  26. Center for Ecosystem Science and Society, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA

    Matthew Bowker

  27. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA), Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Bariloche, Bariloche, Argentina

    Donaldo Bran & Gabriel Oliva

  28. Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Northwest A & F University, Yangling, China

    Chongfeng Bu

  29. Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Water Resources, Yangling, China

    Chongfeng Bu & Mengchen Ju

  30. State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany

    Rafaella Canessa, Pierre Liancourt, Jan Christian Ruppert, Katja Tielbörger & Liesbeth van den Brink

  31. Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, Halle (Saale), Germany

    Rafaella Canessa

  32. German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany

    Rafaella Canessa, Simone Cesarz & Nico Eisenhauer

  33. Grupo de Investigación en Ecología Evolutiva en los Trópicos-EETROP- Universidad de las Américas, Quito, Ecuador

    Andrea P. Castillo-Monroy & David A. Donoso

  34. Instituto de Estudios Científicos y Tecnológicos (IDECYT), Universidad Simón Rodríguez, Caracas, Venezuela

    Ignacio Castro & Rosa Mary Hernández

  35. Grupo de Ecología Forestal y Agroecosistemas, Facultad de Ciencias Agropecuarias, Carrera de Agronomía, Universidad de Cuenca, Cuenca, Ecuador

    Patricio Castro-Quezada & Oswaldo Jadan

  36. Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany

    Simone Cesarz & Nico Eisenhauer

  37. Departamento de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana, Biológicas, Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana, Feira de Santana, Brazil

    Abel Augusto Conceição & Frederic Mendes Hughes

  38. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX, USA

    Anthony Darrouzet-Nardi

  39. Faculty of Science, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Yvonne C. Davila

  40. HUN-REN ‘Lendület’ Seed Ecology Research Group, Institute of Ecology and Botany, Centre for Ecological Research, Vácrátót, Hungary

    Balázs Deák & Orsolya Valkó

  41. University of York, York, UK

    Andrew David Dougill

  42. Misión Biológica de Galicia, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Pontevedra, Spain

    Jorge Durán

  43. Faculty of Science, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

    Hamid Ejtehadi

  44. Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja, Loja, Ecuador

    Carlos Ivan Espinosa & Elizabeth Gusman-Montalvan

  45. Instituto de Investigación Interdisciplinaria (I3), Vicerrectoría Académica, Universidad de Talca, Talca, Chile

    Alex Fajardo & Juan P. Mora

  46. Department of Range and Watershed Management, Faculty of Natural Resources and Environment, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

    Mohammad Farzam

  47. Veterinary Faculty, University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain

    Ana Foronda

  48. Investigaciones de Ecología en Ambientes Antropizados, Laboratorio Ecotono, INIBIOMA (Universidad Nacional del Comahue, CONICET), Bariloche, Argentina

    Jorgelina Franzese

  49. Department of Natural Resource Science, Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada

    Lauchlan H. Fraser & Colton Stephens

  50. Universidad Nacional de Luján-CONICET, Luján, Argentina

    Juan Gaitán

  51. Instituto de Investigaciones en Biodiversidad y Medioambiente (CONICET), Universidad Nacional del Comahue, Neuquén, Argentina

    Sofía Laura Gonzalez

  52. Institute of Landscape Ecology, University of Münster, Münster, Germany

    Norbert Hölzel & Frederike Velbert

  53. Disturbance Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics, Bayreuth Center of Ecology and Environmental Research (BayCEER), University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany

    Anke Jentsch & Andreas von Heßberg

  54. Earth Research Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA

    Kudzai F. Kaseke

  55. cE3c - Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes & CHANGE - Global Change and Sustainability Institute, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal

    Melanie Köbel & Alice Nunes

  56. Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research (BBIB), Berlin, Germany

    Anika Lehmann

  57. Biodiversity Research/Systematic Botany, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany

    Anja Linstädter

  58. Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

    Michelle A. Louw & Peter C. le Roux

  59. Key Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology of the Ministry of Education, Jilin Songnen Grassland Ecosystem National Observation and Research Station, Institute of Grassland Science, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, China

    Quanhui Ma & Deli Wang

  60. Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Science, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa

    Mancha Mabaso & Thulani P. Makhalanyane

  61. Gobabeb – Namib Research Institute, Walvis Bay, Namibia

    Gillian Maggs-Kölling & Eugene Marais

  62. Institute of Ecology and Environmental Sciences of Paris, SU/IRD/CNRS/INRAE/UPEC, Bondy, France

    Oumarou Malam Issa

  63. School of Natural Resources and the Environment, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA

    Mitchel McClaran

  64. Departamento de Biología y Geología, Física y Química Inorgánica, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Móstoles, Spain

    Betty Mendoza

  65. Risk and Vulnerability Science Centre, University of Limpopo, Mankweng, South Africa

    Vincent Mokoka

  66. INDEHESA, Forestry School, Universidad de Extremadura, Plasencia, Spain

    Gerardo Moreno & Víctor Rolo

  67. US Geological Survey, Southwest Biological Science Center, Flagstaff, AZ, USA

    Seth Munson

  68. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura (IFEVA-CONICET), Cátedra de Ecología, Facultad de Agronomía, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Gastón R. Oñatibia

  69. Department of Environment and Society, Utah State University, Moab, UT, USA

    Brooke Osborne

  70. Universidad Nacional de Río Negro, Sede Atlántica, Centro de Estudios Ambientales desde la NorPatagonia (CEANPa), CONICET, Viedma, Argentina

    Guadalupe Peter & Silvia Torres Robles

  71. Normandie Universite, Unirouen, Inrae, Ecodiv, Rouen, France

    Margerie Pierre

  72. Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología (IPE, CSIC), Zaragoza, Spain

    Yolanda Pueyo

  73. US Geological Survey, Southwest Biological Science Center, Moab, UT, USA

    Sasha Reed

  74. Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Madrid, Spain

    Ana Rey

  75. Instituto de Ecología, A.C, Chihuahua, Mexico

    Víctor Manuel Reyes Gómez

  76. Institute of Biology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Matthias C. Rillig

  77. Al Quds University, Abu Dis, Palestine

    Ayman Salah

  78. Mara Research Station, Limpopo Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Makhado, South Africa

    Phokgedi Julius Sebei

  79. The Dead Sea and Arava Science Center, Yotvata, Israel

    Ilan Stavi

  80. Eilat Campus, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Eilat, Israel

    Ilan Stavi

  81. Department of Geography and Earth Science, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth, UK

    Andrew David Thomas

  82. Zoology Department, National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi, Kenya

    Wanyoike Wamiti

  83. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Indiana University Indianapolis (IUI), Indianapolis, IN, USA

    Lixin Wang

  84. Desert Ecology Research Group, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Glenda M. Wardle

  85. Cátedra de Ecología, Facultad de Agronomía, Universidad de Buenos Aires. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura (IFEVA-CONICET), Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Laura Yahdjian

  86. Department of Natural Resources, Agricultural Research Organization, Institute of Plant Sciences, Gilat Research Center, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Eli Zaady

  87. Kaye College of Education, Be’er Sheva, Israel

    Eli Zaady

  88. State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi, China

    Yuanming Zhang & Xiaobing Zhou

  89. Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering Division, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

    Fernando T. Maestre

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Contributions

F.T.M. designed and coordinated the field survey. D.J.E. and J. Ding conceived the study. J. Dorrough undertook the Bayesian analyses, M.M-C. drafted the figures and J. Ding produced the map. Laboratory analyses were performed by V.O., B.G., B.J.M., S.A., A.R., P.D.-M., C.P., N.E., M.C.R., S.C. and M.D.-B. The other authors collected and managed the collection of field data. D.J.E. and J. Ding wrote the draft paper in collaboration with F.T.M. and O.S. and with contributions from all authors.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jingyi Ding.

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Nature Plants thanks the anonymous reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Tables 1–3, Supplementary Figs. 1–8, Supplementary Texts 1–3 and Supplementary References.

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Source Data Fig. 3

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Eldridge, D.J., Ding, J., Dorrough, J. et al. Hotspots of biogeochemical activity linked to aridity and plant traits across global drylands. Nat. Plants (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-024-01670-7

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