Sustainable Land Use Strengthens Microbial and Herbivore Controls in Soil Food Webs in Current and Future Climates

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Marie Sünnemann - , German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle—Jena—Leipzig, Leipzig University (Author)
  • Andrew D. Barnes - , University of Waikato (Author)
  • Angelos Amyntas - , German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle—Jena—Leipzig, Friedrich Schiller University Jena (Author)
  • Marcel Ciobanu - , Romanian Academy (Author)
  • Malte Jochum - , German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle—Jena—Leipzig, Leipzig University, University of Würzburg (Author)
  • Alfred Lochner - , German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle—Jena—Leipzig, Leipzig University (Author)
  • Anton M. Potapov - , German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle—Jena—Leipzig, Leipzig University (Author)
  • Thomas Reitz - , German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle—Jena—Leipzig, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (Author)
  • Benjamin Rosenbaum - , German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle—Jena—Leipzig, Friedrich Schiller University Jena (Author)
  • Martin Schädler - , German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle—Jena—Leipzig, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (Author)
  • Anja Zeuner - , German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle—Jena—Leipzig, Leipzig University (Author)
  • Nico Eisenhauer - , German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle—Jena—Leipzig, Leipzig University (Author)

Abstract

Climate change and land-use intensification are threatening soil communities and ecosystem functions. Understanding the combined effects of climate change and land use is crucial for predicting future impacts on soil biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in agroecosystems. Here, we used a field experiment to quantify the combined effects of climate change (warming and altered precipitation patterns) and land use (agricultural type and management intensity) on soil food webs across nematodes, micro-, and macroarthropods. Specifically, we investigated two types of agricultural systems—croplands and grasslands—under both high- and low-intensity management. We focused on assessing the functioning of soil food webs by investigating changes in energy flux to consumers in the main trophic groups: decomposers, microbivores, herbivores, and predators. While the total energy flux and detritivory, herbivory and predation in the soil food web remained unchanged across treatments, low-intensity land use—compared to high intensity—led to higher microbivory and microbial control under future climate conditions (i.e., warming and summer drought) in croplands and grasslands. At the same time, microbial and herbivore control were higher under low-intensity land use in croplands and grasslands. Overall, our results underscore the potential benefits of less intensive, more sustainable management practices for soil food-web functioning under current and future climate scenarios.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere17554
JournalGlobal change biology
Volume30
Issue number11
Publication statusPublished - Nov 2024
Peer-reviewedYes
Externally publishedYes

External IDs

PubMed 39545329

Keywords

Keywords

  • climate change, energy flux, grassland, land use, soil arthropods, soil microbes, soil nematodes