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Decoupling of soil nutrient cycles as a function of aridity in global drylands

Overview of attention for article published in Nature, October 2013
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  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (99th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (81st percentile)

Mentioned by

news
11 news outlets
blogs
8 blogs
policy
1 policy source
twitter
41 X users
facebook
7 Facebook pages
googleplus
2 Google+ users
reddit
1 Redditor

Citations

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853 Mendeley
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1 CiteULike
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Title
Decoupling of soil nutrient cycles as a function of aridity in global drylands
Published in
Nature, October 2013
DOI 10.1038/nature12670
Pubmed ID
Authors

Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo, Fernando T. Maestre, Antonio Gallardo, Matthew A. Bowker, Matthew D. Wallenstein, Jose Luis Quero, Victoria Ochoa, Beatriz Gozalo, Miguel García-Gómez, Santiago Soliveres, Pablo García-Palacios, Miguel Berdugo, Enrique Valencia, Cristina Escolar, Tulio Arredondo, Claudia Barraza-Zepeda, Donaldo Bran, José Antonio Carreira, Mohamed Chaieb, Abel A. Conceição, Mchich Derak, David J. Eldridge, Adrián Escudero, Carlos I. Espinosa, Juan Gaitán, M. Gabriel Gatica, Susana Gómez-González, Elizabeth Guzman, Julio R. Gutiérrez, Adriana Florentino, Estela Hepper, Rosa M. Hernández, Elisabeth Huber-Sannwald, Mohammad Jankju, Jushan Liu, Rebecca L. Mau, Maria Miriti, Jorge Monerris, Kamal Naseri, Zouhaier Noumi, Vicente Polo, Aníbal Prina, Eduardo Pucheta, Elizabeth Ramírez, David A. Ramírez-Collantes, Roberto Romão, Matthew Tighe, Duilio Torres, Cristian Torres-Díaz, Eugene D. Ungar, James Val, Wanyoike Wamiti, Deli Wang, Eli Zaady

Abstract

The biogeochemical cycles of carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) are interlinked by primary production, respiration and decomposition in terrestrial ecosystems. It has been suggested that the C, N and P cycles could become uncoupled under rapid climate change because of the different degrees of control exerted on the supply of these elements by biological and geochemical processes. Climatic controls on biogeochemical cycles are particularly relevant in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid ecosystems (drylands) because their biological activity is mainly driven by water availability. The increase in aridity predicted for the twenty-first century in many drylands worldwide may therefore threaten the balance between these cycles, differentially affecting the availability of essential nutrients. Here we evaluate how aridity affects the balance between C, N and P in soils collected from 224 dryland sites from all continents except Antarctica. We find a negative effect of aridity on the concentration of soil organic C and total N, but a positive effect on the concentration of inorganic P. Aridity is negatively related to plant cover, which may favour the dominance of physical processes such as rock weathering, a major source of P to ecosystems, over biological processes that provide more C and N, such as litter decomposition. Our findings suggest that any predicted increase in aridity with climate change will probably reduce the concentrations of N and C in global drylands, but increase that of P. These changes would uncouple the C, N and P cycles in drylands and could negatively affect the provision of key services provided by these ecosystems.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 41 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 853 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United States 9 1%
Spain 4 <1%
Ecuador 3 <1%
Japan 3 <1%
United Kingdom 3 <1%
South Africa 2 <1%
China 2 <1%
Argentina 2 <1%
Brazil 2 <1%
Other 13 2%
Unknown 810 95%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 185 22%
Researcher 170 20%
Student > Master 85 10%
Student > Doctoral Student 61 7%
Student > Bachelor 56 7%
Other 129 15%
Unknown 167 20%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 277 32%
Environmental Science 208 24%
Earth and Planetary Sciences 61 7%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 22 3%
Engineering 15 2%
Other 47 6%
Unknown 223 26%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 159. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 18 June 2020.
All research outputs
#243,023
of 24,516,705 outputs
Outputs from Nature
#14,076
of 95,270 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#1,798
of 218,298 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Nature
#196
of 1,081 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 24,516,705 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 99th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 95,270 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 101.8. This one has done well, scoring higher than 85% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 218,298 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 1,081 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 81% of its contemporaries.