Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Med-N-Change (Assessing the Interactive Effects on N Addition and Climate Change on Soil Processes through the Biological Soil Crust in Mediterranean Ecosystems)
Reporting period: 2019-09-01 to 2021-08-31
Issue being addressed: Ecosystems located in the Mediterranean basin are expected to experience important changes in the rainfall frequency and to increase its nitrogen inputs due mainly to the intensification of agriculture and the burning of fossil fuels. Despite many efforts have been made to understand the effects that each one of these factors of global change would have on our ecosystems, it is unknown how they would respond to both factors at the same time. Previous studies have pointed out that the isolated effect of global change drivers could be substantially different from those resulting from their interaction. Soil in these ecosystems is usually covered by a natural and living “carpet” composed by lichens, cyanobacteria, mosses and/or algae, among other organisms. It is called the soil biocrust. Recent research has pointed out that the effect that global change has on the functioning of our ecosystems might be different depending on the presence or absence of the biocrust and on its composition. Thus, the benefits that humans freely gain from properly functioning ecosystems could be more or less protected depending on what organisms are composing the soil biocrust in a given ecosystem.
Overall objectives: Med-N-Change intends to reply to the following questions: What are the joint effects of climate change and nitrogen inputs on soil processes in Mediterranean ecosystems? What is the role of the soil biocrust and its components in protecting soil processes from the joint effects of increased nitrogen and climate change? How are ecosystem services affected? Another objective of this project is to disseminate and educate citizens about the importance of soil biocrust and functioning.
Why is it important for society? Answering those questions will have important implications on environmental policies and prediction of global change scenarios, with the ultimate societal objective of improving ecosystem management in Mediterranean ecosystems. By improving the management of these areas, the ecosystem services provided by them will more protected and citizens will be able to keep benefiting from having a healthy environment.
Conclusions: For soil lichens, we found that reduced watering decreases its vitality, whereas nitrogen addition unexpectedly helped lichens subjected to reduced watering to cope with stress produced by high temperatures. We also found that long-term exposure to nitrogen addition allowed lichens to acclimatize to higher nitrogen availability. Interactions between reduced watering and increased nitrogen supply and temperature have an important potential to harm the functioning of soil lichens (Morillas et al., 2022). For epiphytic lichens, our results suggested that whatever their characteristics were, all species responded with detrimental effects to nitrogen addition, and were unable to recover following sunlight and ultraviolet exposure. Moreover, solar radiation made a tolerant species more sensitive to the detrimental effects of nitrogen pollution. Our results draw attention to the combined effects of global change and other environmental drivers on canopy defoliation and tree death, with consequences for the protection of ecosystems (Morillas et al., 2021).
Overall objectives: Med-N-Change intends to reply to the following questions: What are the joint effects of climate change and nitrogen inputs on soil processes in Mediterranean ecosystems? What is the role of the soil biocrust and its components in protecting soil processes from the joint effects of increased nitrogen and climate change? How are ecosystem services affected? Another objective of this project is to disseminate and educate citizens about the importance of soil biocrust and functioning.
Why is it important for society? Answering those questions will have important implications on environmental policies and prediction of global change scenarios, with the ultimate societal objective of improving ecosystem management in Mediterranean ecosystems. By improving the management of these areas, the ecosystem services provided by them will more protected and citizens will be able to keep benefiting from having a healthy environment.
Conclusions: For soil lichens, we found that reduced watering decreases its vitality, whereas nitrogen addition unexpectedly helped lichens subjected to reduced watering to cope with stress produced by high temperatures. We also found that long-term exposure to nitrogen addition allowed lichens to acclimatize to higher nitrogen availability. Interactions between reduced watering and increased nitrogen supply and temperature have an important potential to harm the functioning of soil lichens (Morillas et al., 2022). For epiphytic lichens, our results suggested that whatever their characteristics were, all species responded with detrimental effects to nitrogen addition, and were unable to recover following sunlight and ultraviolet exposure. Moreover, solar radiation made a tolerant species more sensitive to the detrimental effects of nitrogen pollution. Our results draw attention to the combined effects of global change and other environmental drivers on canopy defoliation and tree death, with consequences for the protection of ecosystems (Morillas et al., 2021).
At the beginning of the action most work-effort was devoted to arranging the details of the experimental design, solving practical challenges and training in the field of lichens. Following this period, we performed the field sampling in the international long-term experimental network encompassing sites in Lisbon (Portugal), Madrid (Spain) and Sassari (Italy). Once all 432 soil cores and 50 soil lichen samples were collected, the microcosm experiments kicked-off. Laboratory analyses for a complete set of soil variables of these samples were performed in the following months. In parallel, the objective related to soil lichen’s ability to cope with environmental changes was accomplished and published in 2022 (Morillas et al., 2022). Database to investigate how lichen physiological responses and soil parameters are correlated was completed with twelve variables in summer 2020, and it is currently being explored and preliminary results will be presented in several meetings. Objectives focused on soil processes have not been fully accomplished due to a delay in the project schedule. However, databases related to these goals are curated and ready for analyses and will be published in the coming months.
Besides working on the tasks tightly linked to Med-N-Change, I have also engaged in other scientific activities, such as participating as Guess Editor in the publication of the two Special Issues, participating in two workshops with oral presentations, and being involved in the COST Actions Bottons-up (CA18207, H2020) and Eudaphobase (CA18237, H2020). I have co-authored two scientific papers and an editorial within the scope of Med-N-Change in collaboration with international partners (LoCascio et al., 2021, Ventura et al., 2021 and Andreeta et al., 2022) and been involved in many public engagement activities of European or national reach such as “The International Day of Girls and Women in Science”, “The European Researcher´s Night”, “Science is Wonderful!” or “Ecology Day”.
Overview of the results from Med-N-Change and their exploitation and dissemination include:
• Scientific publications: Five research articles have been published in open access, which will facilitate their exploitation. They have been disseminated in Twitter and the website of the action, as well as in 11 national and international conferences through 15 oral and poster communications.
• Dissemination articles: Four articles have been published in the most popular public engagement website related to science in Spain (Naukas), which ensures a broad reach of the public interested in scientific-related topics.
• Virtual learning material: Seven learning tools have been developed during the lifespan of the action and within its framework. They have been exploited through public engagement activities of European or national reach.
Besides working on the tasks tightly linked to Med-N-Change, I have also engaged in other scientific activities, such as participating as Guess Editor in the publication of the two Special Issues, participating in two workshops with oral presentations, and being involved in the COST Actions Bottons-up (CA18207, H2020) and Eudaphobase (CA18237, H2020). I have co-authored two scientific papers and an editorial within the scope of Med-N-Change in collaboration with international partners (LoCascio et al., 2021, Ventura et al., 2021 and Andreeta et al., 2022) and been involved in many public engagement activities of European or national reach such as “The International Day of Girls and Women in Science”, “The European Researcher´s Night”, “Science is Wonderful!” or “Ecology Day”.
Overview of the results from Med-N-Change and their exploitation and dissemination include:
• Scientific publications: Five research articles have been published in open access, which will facilitate their exploitation. They have been disseminated in Twitter and the website of the action, as well as in 11 national and international conferences through 15 oral and poster communications.
• Dissemination articles: Four articles have been published in the most popular public engagement website related to science in Spain (Naukas), which ensures a broad reach of the public interested in scientific-related topics.
• Virtual learning material: Seven learning tools have been developed during the lifespan of the action and within its framework. They have been exploited through public engagement activities of European or national reach.
Our results contribute to the current knowledge because they proved that both epiphytic (Morillas et al., 2021) and soil (Morillas et al., 2022) lichens have the physiological capacity to be used as early indicators of several factors of global change. We expect that the objectives focused on soil processes will allow us to identify the distinct biocrust-forming organisms that will differentially drive the response of soil processes to the interactive effects of nitrogen pollution and climate change. Knowing the specific role of each biocrust-forming organism will allow land managers to establish environmental policies and restoration actions to protect the biocrust composition that provides ecosystem services most efficiently. Our study about how are lichen physiological responses affected by synergetic drivers of global change aims at contributing to the knowledge about the link between lichens physiologic mechanisms and ecological impacts on soil functioning of the combined effect of nitrogen deposition and climate change. The economic implications of this research will be delivered because recovering damaged ecosystems services is much costlier than protecting them. Societal impacts of this project can be summarized in an improved provision of ecosystem services in which the well-being of humanity relies.