Author(s)

Walter G. Whitford¹, Yosef Steinberger^2*

¹USDA-ARS Jornada Experimental Range, Box 3JER, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, USA.
²The Mina & Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel.

Deserts have traditionally been considered as a low moisture system where biological activity is triggered by unpredictable rainfall in time and space. Studies on desert ecosystems functions, processes, dynamics and diversity of soil biota had been found to contribute to understanding of their role in primary production and management of soil ecosystems. As belowground biota is very diverse they are playing an important role in above as well below ground essential ecosystem processes e.g. primary production, decomposition, nutrient mineralization etc. The challenge is to use the emerging knowledge of soil biota diversity in understanding basic ecosystems function.

Desert, Soil Biota, Plant Cover, Ecophysiological Adaptation, Plant Soil Biota Interaction

Whitford, W. and Steinberger, Y. (2021) Chihuahuan Desert Soil Biota. Open Journal of Ecology, 11, 581-595. doi: 10.4236/oje.2021.119037.