Various experts and researchers from the CSIC have been immersed in a study in which they Plant transition mechanisms in dry areas caused by drought and where plaster rocks can act as a new water source in severe cases desert.
“These dry areas are not affected landscapes, but of treasures of sustainability, with important lessons to face a changing world, so that’s it important to appreciate and protect them“They claim responsible for this hopeful work.
A study whose secret is in the cast, a rock that is in its natural state It can be hydrated, that is, with water in its crystalline network or dried out.
GIPS MOVES, The possible solution for desert formation
Nursing grounds are few rated landscapes. In contrast to picturesque forests, meadows or mountains, these areas offer more limited vegetation, which is divided into small pieces of small striking bushes and remembers more a desert. However, they were able to monitor major claims.
Researcher Alicia Montesinos, Alicante by the neighborhood of Petrer, explains that the observation of these forgotten areas such as sites with little value has consequences for conservation. This ensures that they find industrial polygons, dumps, motor crops and more recent solar plants. Other times, pines are planted to improve their aesthetics.
“These dry areas are not affected landscapes, but about treasures of sustainability, with important lessons to face a changing world, so it is important to appreciate and protect,” argues the scientist of the desert research center (CID, CSIC-UV-GVA).
Gypsum sulphate (calcium sulfate) are rare compared to other types of soil in Spain, such as limestone or clay. They are usually found in dry areas, as is the case of the tabernas -in Almería, or the emblematic desert of Atacama, in Chile.
These extreme places have the species that inhabit them, forced to develop unique adjustment mechanisms because they are Areas where water and nutrients are scarce. That is why they also attracted the attention of researcher Sara Palacio years ago.
This scientist from the Pyrenean Institute of Ecology (IPE-CSIC) I did not understand how some small plants of the plasters (gypsophils), such as the Jara de Escamillas (Helianthemum Squamatum), flourished in the middle of the summer without clear water. After excluding the most obvious options, such as rain, humidity of the fog or underground water, an idea started to get more and more power in their heads: what if the plants used the water of the structure of the mineral itself of the plaster?
The plaster is a special rock. In its natural condition it can be hydrated, that is, with water in its crystalline network or dried out. And some changes in their hydration occur at room temperature, which means that houses – and even train tracks – located in areas with plaster floors in the summer somewhat moving by drying the mineral.
This circumstance ensured that the researcher suggested that plants with shallow roots such as Helianthemum could use the water of the mineral structure – the crystallization water – to survive. He noted that some copies of Jara de Escamillas even pierce the plaster rocks to introduce their roots there.
To control this hypothesis, Palacio designed an experiment with which he discovered that the crystallization water that was held in the internal structure of the rock istopically different from rainwater or substrate. That is, it can be distinguished from other possible types of water. With this methodology, Sara Palacio has determined that Up to 90 % of the water used by the Jara van Escamillas in the summer can be crystallization water.
Can water come from the stones?
That a plant could benefit from the water in a rock that is different from liquid or free water, was a new approach. In the plaster, this water is up to 20% of the rock. In subsequent works, the researcher Laura de la Puente also also has about 30 plant species of shallow roots that can benefit from this new water source of the IPE-CSIC. And thought that They produced a decrease in pH and organic acids with their roots that can influence the composition of the plaster.
The researchers could not ratify whether the use of crystallization water was a passive process that used the plant or whether it was its own initiative
That is, if the plant actively created the water. Shortly thereafter, another study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggested that some cyanobacteria from the Atacama desert would also obtain the water they needed from plaster rocks.
“The evidence seems to indicate that getting crystallization water is an active process of the plant, which together with the bacteria, fungi and other chemical armament they have,” explains Sara Palacio. This strategy is not the only one that is used by plants to survive in dry areas. The Alicia Montesinos team He discovered that one of the keys to overcome these circumstances of high environmental stress is facilitation.
For example, there are certain more resistant plants that, as soon as they settle in an area, illuminate environmental conditions under their cup and offer shade and moisture, allowing others to live next to them. These first are usually called facilitators or nurses. But the collaboration can become very complex.
The Cide researcher (CSIC-UV-GVA) discovered that plastering plants redistribute the available nitrogen among his neighbors. For example, it is a critical source to bloom. At the start of spring, the plants that postpone bloom – such as the Jara de Escamillas, which does this in the middle of the summer – are transferring more nitrogen to those that are already blooming. So, depending on their flowering rhythms, they turn the available sources to exchange.
To demonstrate this unexpected cooperation network, Alicia Montesinos used stable nitrogen isotopes as tracers, which they apply in plants of the plants and later identify the same isotopes that are marked in their neighbors. In this way he discovered that a more varied plant community improves its ability to maintain nitrogen, earlier The source does not stop on the ground.
“In the most difficult places, of desertPlants find strength in the company. The transfer of nutrients takes place to those who always need it. They look a bit like societies with fewer resources, in which cooperation between people comes to the fore, “reflects the researcher Montesinos.
The treasury of the dry areas
Although these survival mechanisms have to continue to investigate, they all urge us to change in dry areas. They keep real secrets of survival, because some are great progress where nobody usually looks.
‘In the world there are 1,300 plants that only grow in gypsum environments. They are not many species, but if half are very rare and are in very few places, we cannot despise them. These environments have super -specialized organisms with metabolic solutions such as the use of plaster crystallization and many others. They can save our lives at some point, “concludes Sara Palacio. Ecoticia.com