Badger (Taxidea taxus) disturbances increase soil heterogeneity in a degraded shrub-steppe ecosystem |
| |
| Authors: | DJ Eldridge WG Whitford |
| |
| Institution: | 1. Graduate Student, Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA;2. Present position: Plant Ecologist, WRA, Inc., San Rafael, CA 94901, USA;3. Assistant Professor, Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK 99775, USA;4. Associate Professor, Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA;1. Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8653, Japan;2. Postdoctoral Researcher, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8657, Japan;3. Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Agricultural Science, Tohoku University, Osaki, Miyagi 989-6711, Japan.;1. Research Ecologist US Department of Agriculture–Agricultural Research Service, Rangeland Resources Research Unit, Cheyenne, WY 82009, and Fort Collins, CO 80526, USA;2. Research Leader and Rangeland Scientist, US Department of Agriculture–Agricultural Research Service, Rangeland Resources Research Unit, Cheyenne, WY 82009, and Fort Collins, CO 80526, USA;3. Professor Emeritus, Department of Biology and Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA |
| |
| Abstract: | In the western United States, overgrazing, weed invasion and wildfire have resulted in the conversion of shrub-steppe to annual grasslands, with substantial effects on ecosystem function. In these landscapes, badgers disturb large areas of soil while foraging for fossorial animals. Mounds created by badgers contained the lowest concentrations of total carbon, nitrogen and sulphur, mineral nitrogen and mineralizable nitrogen, inter-mound soils had the highest concentrations, and excavation pits had intermediate levels. Soil C:N ratio and pH were greater, and electrical conductivity and soluble Ca2+, Mg2+ and K+ were lower on mound soils compared with either pit or inter-mound soils. Larger pits generally trapped more litter, and increased litter mass equated with greater concentrations of active carbon, but only at the burned sites. Older mounds supported more vascular plants and cryptogamic crusts. Our results demonstrate reduced levels of nutrients and a higher C:N ratio on the mounds compared with either the pits or inter-mounds. Alteration to the homogeneous post-fire landscape by badgers contributes to patchiness in soils and vegetation, which is critical to the functioning of arid systems. Given their effect on soil C:N ratios, mounds may be important sites for recovery of indigenous shrub-steppe plant species. |
| |
| Keywords: | |
| 本文献已被 ScienceDirect 等数据库收录！ |
|
