Publications by authors named "Monica B Berdugo"
Article Synopsis
- Bryophytes are significant photoautotrophs that play key roles in water retention, carbon fixation, and nitrogen cycling across various ecosystems including forests, tundras, and deserts.
- Research highlights the importance of understanding how climate change affects bryophytes, as they can both buffer ecosystems from changes and face survival challenges due to unknown tolerance thresholds.
- As ecosystems shift due to climate change, the influence of bryophytes on global biogeochemical cycles may change, potentially altering the magnitude of their impact on ecosystem functions.
Nonvascular photoautotrophs (NVP), including bryophytes, lichens, terrestrial algae, and cyanobacteria, are increasingly recognized as being essential to ecosystem functioning in many regions of the world. Current research suggests that climate change may pose a substantial threat to NVP, but the extent to which this will affect the associated ecosystem functions and services is highly uncertain. Here, we propose a research agenda to address this urgent question, focusing on physiological and ecological processes that link NVP to ecosystem functions while also taking into account the substantial taxonomic diversity across multiple ecosystem types.
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