Spatial variations in soil properties across ecotones: a short review

Abstract Ecotones are considered as unique environments. The concepts of edge effect and ecotone species (flora and fauna) are widely used. Considering the fact that the majority of the species found in ecotones are usually at their physiologically determined limits of distribution, how they react to global climate changes becomes crucial. Ecotones are reputed to be more biologically diverse than areas close to them, and therefore possesses a high conservation value, yet little is known on how soil properties vary across ecotones. In this paper, we firstly highlighted the roles ecotones play in assessing the effect on global climate change, the mediatory role they play in the movement of material (water and nutrients) into and out of the region. Secondly, we reviewed studies on how soil properties change across ecotones and it is worthwhile to note that soil properties tend to differ across various ecotones (e.g. increasing pH and decreasing P & N across forest–glade ecotones, decreasing pH across ancient–recent forest ecotones) in a manner that defines the character of the ecotones existing.