生物土壤结皮研究：进展、前沿与展望

A Study of Biological Soil Crusts:Recent Development,Trend and Prospect

生物土壤结皮是由隐花植物和相关土壤微小生物与表层土壤颗粒胶结而形成的复合体,与维管束植物覆盖一样,它是干旱区地表的重要覆盖类型(其盖度达40%)。生物土壤结皮是荒漠生态系统组成和地表景观的重要特征,在不同生物气候区的荒漠景观过程、土壤生态过程、土壤水文过程、土壤生物过程和地球化学循环过程,以及干旱半干旱地区生态修复过程中发挥着重要作用。关于生物土壤结皮的研究是地学和生物学学科交叉的前沿研究领域,已成为国际干旱区地表过程研究的重要核心科学问题之一。综述了国内外该领域最新研究进展,分析了研究的趋势,讨论了其前沿科学问题和未来研究的重点,以期促进我国生物土壤结皮的研究,加深对我国干旱半干旱区地表过程的认识。

Biological soil crusts are complex organic integrities of cyanobacteria, green algae, lichens and mosses, fungi as well as soil microorganism, cementing with surface soil fine particles by their exude mucilaginous material. They are common cl^ptogamic communities in various arid and semi-arid regions of the world. As vascular plant cover, BSCs cover is one of most important earth surface cover types as BSCs occupies 40% of the total area of the arid lands, which are significant compositions and features of desert ecosystems and arid landscapes. There- fore, the vital roles of BSCs in the processes of desert landscapes, soil ecological, soil hydrological, soil biological and geochemieal processes, as well as in the practice of ecological rehabilitation for arid and semiarid regions have been widely emphasized. With regards to BSCs, up to now, it not only becomes one of international key scientific issues for earth surface processes in arid regions, but also cross highlight between geographical and biological knowledge. In this paper, the new advances and trends for BSCs studies have been reviewed. Based on this, we discuss the future research emphases, and hope these reviews will be benefited to BSCs study in China, and will enhance the understanding for earth surface processes in arid and semiarid regions of China.