Biocrusts mediate the plant community composition of dryland restoration ecosystems

Degradation and expansion are current threats associated with drylands. During natural or artificial restoration, dryland ecosystems tend to contain a unique community, namely, biocrusts. Studies have shown that biocrusts serve multiple functions and have the potential to accelerate or inhibit degradation. However, the mechanisms by which biocrusts mediate dryland plant community structure and composition remain largely unknown. In this study, we performed a series of pot experiments under greenhouse conditions at three disturbance levels (strong, moderate and no disturbance) and at three rainfall gradients (- 50 %, normal, + 50 %) for different biocrust types. Our objective was to examine how biocrusts influence the introduction and establishment of different functional forms of plant species during the different succession stages of dryland recovery. Our results showed that biocrusts have significantly different effects on the seed germination and survival of the tested plant species. Although strong disturbances to the biocrusts and increasing rainfall alleviated the inhibitory effects of biocrusts on the perennial herb (S. glareosa) and subshrub (C. latens) species, these factors could only promote the temporary survival of these two plants in the revegetated area. These results indicate that biocrusts in revegetated systems play important sieving functions during plant species establishment. Additionally, the survival of S. viridis, a plant species with small seeds adapted to the current habitat, was promoted in the community, but two plant species that are currently unsuitable, S. glareosa and C. latens, were filtered out by the biocrusts. Our conclusions suggest that biocrusts play an ecological filtering role in plant species introduction and establishment in revegetated ecosystems and demonstrate the scientific significance of biocrusts in maintaining the health and stability of dryland ecosystems.