The legacy of rainfall patterns in dryland ecosystems

该项目旨在利用一种实验方法来确定降雨制度如何构成旱地社区和生态系统的性质，以及对改变的降雨制度的潜在反应。旱地生态系统的功能是由微生物、无脊椎动物和植物之间的复杂相互作用控制的。然而，生物活动受到水的可获得性和降雨制度变化的限制，这可能会减缓生物相互作用的方式，可能会导致营养级联，甚至生态系统状态的变化。通过使用新开发的分子技术将观察到的反应与土壤微生物功能属性联系起来，该项目试图提供对生态系统对气候变异性和极端气候事件的反应的机械性洞察。

This project aims to use an experimental approach to determine how rainfall regime structures dryland communities and ecosystem properties and potential responses to altered rainfall regime. Ecosystem functioning in drylands is governed by complex interactions between microbes, invertebrates and plants. Biological activity however is constrained by the availability of water and altered rainfall regimes that could moderate how organisms interact, potentially causing trophic cascades and even ecosystem state changes. By linking observed responses with soil microbial functional attributes using newly developed molecular techniques the project seeks to provide a mechanistic insight into ecosystem responses to climate variability and extreme climatic events.