Non-Toxic Increases in Nitrogen Availability Can Improve the Ability of the Soil Lichen Cladonia rangiferina to Cope with Environmental Changes

Lourdes Morillas; Javier Roales; Cristina Cruz; Silvana Munzi

doi:10.3390/jof8040333

Non-Toxic Increases in Nitrogen Availability Can Improve the Ability of the Soil Lichen Cladonia rangiferina to Cope with Environmental Changes

J Fungi (Basel). 2022 Mar 23;8(4):333. doi: 10.3390/jof8040333.

Authors

Lourdes Morillas¹, Javier Roales^{1

2}, Cristina Cruz¹, Silvana Munzi^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, Bloco C2, 1749-016 Lisbon, Portugal.
² Departamento de Sistemas Físicos, Químicos y Naturales, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Ctra. Utrera Km 1, 41013 Seville, Spain.
³ Centro Interuniversitário de História das Ciências e da Tecnologia Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande, 1749-016 Lisbon, Portugal.

Abstract

Climate change and atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition on drylands are greatly threatening these especially vulnerable areas. Soil biocrust-forming lichens in drylands can provide early indicators of these disturbances and play a pivotal role, as they contribute to key ecosystem services. In this study, we explored the effects of different long-term water availability regimes simulating climate changes and their interaction with N addition on the physiological response of the soil lichen Cladonia rangiferina. Three sets of this lichen were subjected to control, reduced watering, and reduced watering and N addition (40 kg NH₄NO₃ ha^-1 year^-1) treatments for 16 months. Finally, all samples were subjected to daily hydration cycles with N-enriched water at two levels (40 and 80 kg NH₄NO₃ ha^-1 year^-1) for 23 days. We found that reduced watering significantly decreased the vitality of this lichen, whereas N addition unexpectedly helped lichens subjected to reduced watering to cope with stress produced by high temperatures. We also found that long-term exposure to N addition contributed to the acclimation to higher N availability. Overall, our data suggest that the interactions between reduced watering and increased N supply and temperature have an important potential to reduce the physiological performance of this soil lichen.

Keywords: Mediterranean ecosystems; aridity; biomonitoring; climate change; drylands; global change; reduced watering; soil biocrust; soil lichens; synergetic effects.

Abstract

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