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Updated: Dec 28, 2025

A CO2 Concentration Gradient Facility for Testing CO2 Enrichment and Soil Effects on Grassland Ecosystem Function
Published on: November 21, 2015
Global ecosystem thresholds driven by aridity
Miguel Berdugo1,2, Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo3,4, Santiago Soliveres3,5
1Instituto Multidisciplinar para el Estudio del Medio "Ramón Margalef," Universidad de Alicante, 03690 San Vicente del Raspeig, Alicante, Spain. mglberdugo@gmail.com.
Abstract:
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.
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