Journal article
Biocrust morphogroups provide an effective and rapid assessment tool for drylands
CF Read, DH Duncan, PA Vesk, J Elith
Journal of Applied Ecology | WILEY | Published : 2014
Abstract
Summary: Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) occur across most of the world's drylands and are sensitive indicators of dryland degradation. Accounting for shifts in biocrust composition is important for quantifying integrity of arid and semi-arid ecosystems, but the best methods for assessing biocrusts are uncertain. We investigate the utility of surveying biocrust morphogroups, a reduced set of biotic classes, compared to species data, for detecting shifts in biocrust composition and making inference about dryland degradation. We used multivariate regression tree (MRT) analyses to model morphogroup abundance, species abundance and species occurrence data from two independent studies in semi-..
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Awarded by ARC
Funding Acknowledgements
We thank D. Meagher, A. Downing, J. Elix and E. Warren for help with species identifications; Glenn De'Ath for help with the mrt package; C. Moxham, M. White and personnel from Greening Australia, DPI and the North Central CMA for assistance with site selection; R. Apted and F. Pereoglou for field assistance; landholders and Parks Victoria for access to properties; Birchip Cropping Group for assistance with landholder engagement; and Matt Bowker and an anonymous reviewer whose comments considerably improved this manuscript. This project was supported by the Holsworth Wildlife Research Fund, the Australian Government NHT & NAP Programs and Victorian Government's 'Our Rural Landscapes'. JE was supported by ARC grant FT0991640 and the Centre of Excellence for Biosecurity Risk Analysis, and PV by the ARC Centre for Excellence in Environmental Decisions.