Synthetic soil crusts against green-desert transitions : a spatial model
Vidiella, Blai (Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (UPF-CSIC) (Barcelona))
Sardanyés, Josep (Centre de Recerca Matemàtica)
Solé, Ricard (Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (UPF-CSIC) (Barcelona))

Fecha:	2020
Resumen:	Semiarid ecosystems are threatened by global warming due to longer dehydration times and increasing soil degradation. Mounting evidence indicates that, given the current trends, drylands are likely to expand and possibly experience catastrophic shifts from vegetated to desert states. Here, we explore a recent suggestion based on the concept of ecosystem terraformation, where a synthetic organism is used to counterbalance some of the nonlinear effects causing the presence of such tipping points. Using an explicit spatial model incorporating facilitation and considering a simplification of states found in semiarid ecosystems including vegetation, fertile and desert soil, we investigate how engineered microorganisms can shape the fate of these ecosystems. Specifically, two different, but complementary, terraformation strategies are proposed: Cooperation -based: C -terraformation; and Dispersion -based: D -terraformation. The first strategy involves the use of soil synthetic microorganisms to introduce cooperative loops (facilitation) with the vegetation. The second one involves the introduction of engineered microorganisms improving their dispersal capacity, thus facilitating the transition from desert to fertile soil. We show that small modifications enhancing cooperative loops can effectively modify the aridity level of the critical transition found at increasing soil degradation rates, also identifying a stronger protection against soil degradation by using the D -terraformation strategy. The same results are found in a mean-field model providing insights into the transitions and dynamics tied to these terraformation strategies. The potential consequences and extensions of these models are discussed.
Ayudas:	European Commission 294294 European Commission 766975 Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad FIS2015-67616-P Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación RYC-2017-22243 Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad MTM2015-71509-C2-1-R Agencia Estatal de Investigación RTI2018-098322-B-I00
Nota:	Altres ajuts: Botin Foundation (Banco Santander through its Santander Universities Global Division) i CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya
Derechos:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Lengua:	Anglès
Documento:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Materia:	Synthetic biology ; Ecological engineering ; Climate change ; Catastrophic shifts ; Mutualism ; Synthetic ecology
Publicado en:	Royal Society Open Science, Vol. 7, Issue 8 (August 2020) , art. 200161, ISSN 2054-5703

DOI: 10.1098/rsos.200161
PMID: 32968506

14 p, 1.5 MB

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