Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Land use alters the resistance and resilience of soil food webs to drought
AU - De Vries, Franciska
AU - Liiri, Mira
AU - Bjornlund, Lisa
AU - Bowker, Matthew
AU - Christensen, Soren
AU - Setala, Heikki
AU - Bardgett, Richard
PY - 2012/1/29
Y1 - 2012/1/29
N2 - Soils deliver several ecosystem services including carbon sequestration and nutrient cycling, which are of central importance to climate mitigation and sustainable food production. Soil biota play an important role in carbon and nitrogen cycling, and, although the effects of land use on soil food webs are well documented, the consequences for their resistance and resilience to climate change are not known. We compared the resistance and resilience to drought—which is predicted to increase under climate change—of soil food webs of two common land-use systems: intensively managed wheat with a bacterial-based soil food web and extensively managed grassland with a fungal-based soil food web. We found that the fungal-based food web, and the processes of C and N loss it governs, of grassland soil was more resistant, although not resilient, and better able to adapt to drought than the bacterial-based food web of wheat soil. Structural equation modelling revealed that fungal-based soil food webs and greater microbial evenness mitigated C and N loss. Our findings show that land use strongly affects the resistance and resilience of soil food webs to climate change, and that extensively managed grassland promotes more resistant, and adaptable, fungal-based soil food webs.
AB - Soils deliver several ecosystem services including carbon sequestration and nutrient cycling, which are of central importance to climate mitigation and sustainable food production. Soil biota play an important role in carbon and nitrogen cycling, and, although the effects of land use on soil food webs are well documented, the consequences for their resistance and resilience to climate change are not known. We compared the resistance and resilience to drought—which is predicted to increase under climate change—of soil food webs of two common land-use systems: intensively managed wheat with a bacterial-based soil food web and extensively managed grassland with a fungal-based soil food web. We found that the fungal-based food web, and the processes of C and N loss it governs, of grassland soil was more resistant, although not resilient, and better able to adapt to drought than the bacterial-based food web of wheat soil. Structural equation modelling revealed that fungal-based soil food webs and greater microbial evenness mitigated C and N loss. Our findings show that land use strongly affects the resistance and resilience of soil food webs to climate change, and that extensively managed grassland promotes more resistant, and adaptable, fungal-based soil food webs.
KW - Agriculture
KW - Biodiversity and ecosystems
KW - Biogeochemistry and geochemistry
KW - Biological sciences
KW - Biology
KW - Ecology
KW - Modelling and statistics
KW - Sustainability
U2 - 10.1038/NCLIMATE1368
DO - 10.1038/NCLIMATE1368
M3 - Journal article
VL - 2
SP - 276
EP - 280
JO - Nature Climate Change
JF - Nature Climate Change
SN - 1758-678X
IS - 4
ER -