The legacy of rainfall patterns in dryland ecosystems

该项目旨在利用实验方法确定降雨制度如何构成旱地群落和生态系统特性，以及对降雨制度改变的潜在反应。干旱地区的生态系统功能是由微生物、无脊椎动物和植物之间复杂的相互作用所控制的。然而，生物活动受到水的可用性和改变的降雨制度的限制，降雨制度可以调节生物体如何相互作用，可能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响应与土壤微生物功能属性联系起来，该项目旨在为生态系统对气候变异和极端气候事件的响应提供机制见解。

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.