Soil cover heterogeneity associated with biocrusts predicts patch-level plant diversity patterns

Abstract Context Soil resource heterogeneity drives plant species diversity patterns at local and landscape scales. In drylands, biocrusts are patchily distributed and contribute to soil resource heterogeneity important for plant establishment and growth. Yet, we have a limited understanding of how such heterogeneity may relate to patterns of plant diversity and community structure. Objectives We explored relationships between biocrust-associated soil cover heterogeneity and plant diversity patterns in a cool desert ecosystem. We asked: (1) does biocrust-associated soil cover heterogeneity predict plant diversity and community composition? and (2) can we use high-resolution remote sensing data to calculate soil cover heterogeneity metrics that could be used to extrapolate these patterns across landscapes? Methods We tested associations among field-based measures of plant diversity and soil cover heterogeneity. We then used a Support Vector Machine classification to map soil, plant and biocrust cover from sub-centimeter resolution Unoccupied Aerial System (UAS) imagery and compared the mapped results to field-based measures. Results Field-based soil cover heterogeneity and biocrust cover were positively associated with plant diversity and predicted community composition. The accuracy of UAS-mapped soil cover classes varied across sites due to variation in timing and quality of image collections, but the overall results suggest that UAS are a promising data source for generating detailed, spatially explicit soil cover heterogeneity metrics. Conclusions Results improve understanding of relationships between biocrust-associated soil cover heterogeneity and plant diversity and highlight the promise of high-resolution UAS data to extrapolate these patterns over larger landscapes which could improve conservation planning and predictions of dryland responses to soil degradation under global change.