荒漠地衣结皮研究进展

微型生物结皮在干旱、半干旱荒漠地区广泛分布,对维持荒漠生态系统的稳定性具有重要作用。地衣结皮是微型生物结皮的重要组成部分及主要类型之一,在固沙、固碳和固氮能力方面独具优势。本文从区域尺度和局部尺度综述了国内外荒漠地衣分布、群落组成及其影响因素,从微尺度探讨了荒漠地衣在形成过程中可能相关的生物因子的作用与功能。虽已有研究发现气候类型、降水量、土壤理化性质、微地形和温度会对荒漠地衣生长型、种类、丰度及盖度产生影响,来自地衣体、地衣结皮和地衣结皮土壤中的生物因素与维持地衣正常生命活动及分布之间存在相关关系,但上述结论尚具有一定的局限性,主要表现在区域尺度仍缺乏专门对荒漠地衣的研究,微尺度缺乏对地衣相关生物功能的实验性探索及验证。上述局限在一定程度上限制了通过人工手段大规模应用荒漠地衣结皮的研究。本文基于国内外研究进展及存在问题,对荒漠地衣结皮应用进行了展望,以期为人工构建荒漠地衣结皮和干旱、半干旱荒漠治理及生态恢复提供新的思路和参考。

Research progress on desert lichen crust

Microbiotic crusts widely distribute in arid and semi-arid desert areas,which are of great significance for maintaining the stability of desert ecosystem.Lichen crust,as important component and one of the main types of microbiotic crusts,has unique superiority in sand,carbon and nitrogen fixation.This paper summarizes the domestic and foreign research progress of desert lichen distribution,community composition and influence factors on regional and local scales,and discussed the function of possible biotic factors affecting desert lichen symbiosis on microscale.Although the existing studies have indicated that the climate type,precipitation,physical and chemical properties of soil,microtopography and temperature can impact lichen habit,species,abundance and coverage,and the biotic factors connected with lichen thallus,lichen crust and lichen crust soil are related to the function of maintaining life activities and distribution of lichens,the conclusions are still limited due to mainly lack of specialized researches on desert lichens on regional scale,and experimental exploration and validation on the lichen-associated biological functions.To a certain extent,all the mentioned limitations will restrict the study of large-scale application of artificial lichen crusts in deserts.The application of desert lichen crust is prospected in order to provide references for artificial construction of desert lichen crusts,arid and semi-arid desert control,and ecological restoration.