Behind the scenes of the Maestre lab (VI): Juan Gaitán on ecosystem structure and functioning in Patagonian rangelands
We continue with the series of posts describing
the “behind the scenes” of the research presented in the articles we publish
(you can find the previous posts of this series here, here, here, here and here).
In this case we will talk about a paper just published as part of the special
feature on grassland/woodland transitions in Journal
of Ecology entitled “Vegetation
structure is as important as climate for explaining ecosystem function across
Patagonian rangelands”, led by our graduate student Juan Gaitán. Juan is a researcher at INTA (Argentina´s national institute for
research on agriculture and livestock production) in San Carlos de Bariloche,
Argentina. This article is also related to another paper led by Juan that has
just been published in Biology Letters
(“Plant
species richness and shrub cover attenuate drought effects on ecosystem
functioning across Patagonian rangelands”).
Juan Gaitán, the lead author of this paper
These are the Q & A for Juan:
What is this
paper about?
In this paper we evaluated the relative importance of abiotic and biotic as drivers of
regional variations in ecosystem functional attributes. Specifically, we
assessed how temperature and both the amount and seasonal distribution of precipitation
can interact with the cover of grasses and shrubs and plant species richness to
influence surrogates of above-ground primary productivity, precipitation
use efficiency and precipitation marginal response. For doing this, we used 311
sites across a broad natural gradient in Patagonian rangelands (south
Argentina).
Map with the location of the sites surveyed in this work
What are the key
messages of this article?
Our study shows
that vegetation structural attributes explained a
significant and unique portion of the variability found in ecosystem functioning
at the regional scale, which is as important as that explained by climate. Our
results have important implications for the management and conservation of
rangelands in the context of ongoing climate change. Through appropriate
grazing management, allowing maintaining and enhancing vegetation cover and
species richness (particularly of grasses) could offset or mitigate the adverse
effects of climate change on ecosystem functioning in these ecosystems.
How did you come
up with the idea of conducting this study?
I
could say it that all started 10 years ago, on a very cold winter day in the
INTA´s Experimental Ranch of Rio Mayo (Chubut province). A group of rangeland
researchers from INTA met there to start designing a system for long-term
monitoring of desertification and global climate change in Patagonian
rangelands; this was the beginning of the MARAS
monitoring system (Spanish acronym of Environment Monitoring of Arid and
Semiarid Regions). We discussed for several years what ecosystem attributes we
should measure and how to measure them. In 2008 we began to install and survey
the network of permanent MARAS plots, which nowadays is formed by more than 300
sites measured using the same standardized protocol. This database allowed us
to explore several questions related to the structure and functioning of arid
and semiarid ecosystems. In 2013, I visited for 3 months the Maestre Lab and I
had the opportunity to discuss with Fernando the first ideas of this article.
Our main motivation was to better understand the role of structural attributes
of vegetation as drivers of ecosystem functioning at the regional scale. Several
studies have explored the importance of climate as a major driver of ecosystem
functioning at this scale, but there is currently a lack of research evaluating
how plant richness and cover modulate controls on ecosystem functioning by
climate at the regional scale. And the MARAS database was certainly highly suitable
to explore these questions!
What have you enjoyed the most during
the “life cycle” of this article (from its conception to its publication)?
I have really
enjoyed all the stages involved in the making of this article, but if I have to
choose one, I would certainly select the fieldwork. Since I started working in
the MARAS project I had the opportunity to know many very beautiful places of
Patagonia and share many fun times with my colleagues. As you can see in the
pictures below, many of the sites we surveyed are gorgeous!
What have been
the major difficulties you have encountered when conducting the research
reflected in this article?
Many people
worked to collect the MARAS data in the field. Sorting, cleaning and digitizing
all the field data was a hughe and tedious job, and I spent countless hours doing
this in Excel! Learning about Structural Equation Modelling was also a challenging
task for me, but I think the hardest part was writing the article. My native
language is Spanish and this is one of the first articles I have written in English,
so this was very hard for me. But with this article I learned a lot about
scientific writing and I hope to continue improving this important skill for
every scientist.
Publishing today
is really hard, how has been your experience with this publication?
When
Fernando suggested me to send the manuscript to Journal of Ecology, I thought it would be a hard process. I
confirmed this when less than a week after sending the manuscript the
manuscript was rejected by Scott Wilson (the Associate Editor responsible) and
Richard Bardgett (one of Journal of Ecology’s Editors). They raised some some
significant doubts about our manuscript which led to its rejection, but at the
same time they were very positive about our study and found that it had
considerable potential for the journal. Thus, they gave us the possibility of
resubmit the paper. This encouraged us to write a new version of the
manuscript. Comments and suggestion of two reviewers were very constructive and
after three rounds of revisions the manuscript really improved. Finally, I
would like to thank the co-authors of this article for all their support during
all this process.
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