Novel climates affect the visible components of biocrust communities but not associated soil bacteria

These data files represent the dull data set from the manuscript with the same title. Reference will be given when published. 1. Drylands rely on biological soil crusts (biocrusts) for key ecosystem functions including soil stability, biogeochemical cycling, and water capture. Understanding how biocrusts adapt to climate change is critical to understanding how dryland ecosystems will function. We investigated the sensitivity of biocrusts to experimentally imposed novel climates to track changes in productivity and stability. 2. We established three common gardens along an elevational-climate gradient on the Colorado Plateau. Mature biocrusts were collected from each site and reciprocally transplanted intact. Over twenty months we monitored visible species composition and cover, chlorophyll a, and the composition of soil bacterial communities using high throughput sequencing. 3. Biocrusts from all sources had higher cover and stability in the high elevation garden. Later successional taxa decreased cover in low elevation gardens. Visible community composition was influenced by both source and transplant environment, whereas soil bacterial community composition retained fidelity to the source. Responses of the visible and soil bacterial components of the biocrust community were not coupled. 4. Our results suggest biocrust communities are sensitive to climate change, and loss of species and function can be expected, while associated soil bacteria may be buffered against rapid change.本数据集文件对应同标题学术手稿中的完整数据集，正式发表时将标注参考文献。 1. 干旱生态系统依赖生物土壤结皮（biological soil crusts，biocrusts）实现土壤固持、生物地球化学循环、水分捕获等核心生态系统功能。解析生物结皮对气候变化的适应机制，对于理解干旱生态系统的功能运转至关重要。本研究探究了生物结皮对实验模拟新型气候的敏感性，以追踪其生产力与稳定性的变化。 2. 研究团队在科罗拉多高原沿海拔-气候梯度设置了3个同质园圃。从各采样点采集成熟生物结皮并进行完整的相互移栽。在为期20余个月的监测周期内，我们通过高通量测序技术，观测了可见物种组成与盖度、叶绿素a含量，以及土壤细菌群落组成。 3. 所有来源的生物结皮在高海拔同质园圃中均表现出更高的盖度与稳定性。在低海拔同质园圃中，后期演替类群的盖度出现下降。可见群落组成同时受结皮来源与移栽环境的影响，而土壤细菌群落组成则保留了对原采样地的忠实性。生物结皮群落中可见组分与土壤细菌组分的响应并不耦合。 4. 本研究结果表明，生物结皮群落对气候变化较为敏感，物种与功能的丧失或将发生，而其关联的土壤细菌或可免受快速变化的影响。