Abundance and richness of biota and soil properties across successive soil ages since glacial recession

Ecosystems shaped by retreating glaciers provide a unique opportunity to study the order and timing of biotic colonization, and how this influences the structure of successive ecological communities. In the last century glaciers across most of the cryosphere have receded at an unprecedented pace. Many studies have been published from different parts of the world testing hypotheses about how soil ecosystems are responding to rapid, contemporary deglaciation events. To better understand and draw general conclusions about how soil ecosystems respond to deglaciation, we conducted a global meta-analysis of 95 published articles focused on the succession of various organisms and soil physicochemical properties in glacier forefields along the chronosequence. Our global synthesis reveals that key soil properties and the abundance and richness of biota follow two conspicuous patterns: 1) Some taxa demonstrate a persistent increase in abundance and richness over the entire chronosequence, 2) othe...

由退缩冰川塑造的生态系统，为研究生物定殖 (biotic colonization) 的顺序与时机，以及其如何影响后续生态群落的结构提供了独特契机。近一个世纪以来，全球绝大多数冰冻圈 (cryosphere) 区域的冰川正以前所未有的速率退缩。全球各地已发表诸多研究，旨在验证关于土壤生态系统如何响应现代快速冰川退缩 (deglaciation) 事件的相关假说。为更深入理解冰川退缩背景下土壤生态系统的响应规律并得出普适性结论，我们针对沿时间序列 (chronosequence) 分布的冰川前缘带 (glacier forefields) 内各类生物演替与土壤理化性质 (soil physicochemical properties) 相关的95篇已发表文献，开展了一项全球荟萃分析 (meta-analysis)。本次全球综合分析结果显示，核心土壤属性以及生物类群 (taxa) 的丰度与丰富度呈现两类显著模式：1）部分类群在整个时间序列内丰度与丰富度持续升高；2）其他...