Food Web Uncertainties Influence Predictions of Climate Change Effects on Soil Carbon Sequestration in Heathlands

Reyns, Wouter; Rineau, François; Spaak, Jürg W.; Franken, Oscar; Berg, Matty P.; Plas, Fons van der; Bardgett, Richard D.; Beenaerts, Natalie; Laender, Frederik De

doi:10.1007/s00248-019-01444-1

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 42 publications

(57 reference statements)

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“…Despite this, they have only recently been included in general models of ecosystem services (de Vries et al, 2014), probably because of their immense diversity. However, uncertainties in consumers' preferences in soil food webs can strongly influence model predictions (Reyns et al, 2019). A main obstacle in food web models is the traditional, simplistic, but erroneous assumption that soil protists act only as bacterivores -however, protists occupy all trophic levels, also including, autotrophs, mixotrophs, saprotrophs, eukaryvores, omnivores, as well as parasites of animals and plants and their hyperparasites (Geisen et al, 2016;Bonkowski et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contrasting Responses of Protistan Plant Parasites and Phagotrophs to Ecosystems, Land Management and Soil Properties

2020

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Functional traits are increasingly used in ecology to link the structure of microbial communities to ecosystem processes. We investigated two important protistan lineages, Cercozoa and Endomyxa (Rhizaria) in soil using Illumina sequencing and analyzed their diversity and functional traits along with their responses to environmental factors in grassland and forest across Germany. From 600 soil samples, we obtained 2,101 Operational Taxonomic Units representing ∼18 million Illumina reads (region V4, 18S rRNA gene). All major taxonomic and functional groups were present, dominated by small bacterivorous flagellates (Glissomonadida). Endomyxan plant parasites were absent from forests. In grassland, Cercozoa and Endomyxa were promoted by more intensive land use management. Grassland and forest strikingly differed in community composition. Relative abundances of bacterivores and eukaryvores were inversely influenced by environmental factors. These patterns provide new insights into the functional organization of soil biota and indications for a more sustainable land-use management.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contrasting Responses of Protistan Plant Parasites and Phagotrophs to Ecosystems, Land Management and Soil Properties

2020

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“…Despite of this, they have only recently been included in general models on ecosystem services (de Vries et al, 2014), probably because of their immense diversity. However, uncertainties in consumers' preferences in soil food webs can strongly influence model predictions (Reyns et al, 2019). A main obstacle in food web models is the traditional simplistic, but erroneous assumption that soil protists act only as bacterivores -instead protists occupy all trophic levels, and include, next to bacterivores, autotrophs, mixotrophs, saprotrophs, eukaryvores, omnivores, as well as parasites of animals and plants and their hyperparasites (Geisen et al, 2016;Bonkowski et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contrasting responses of protistan plant parasites and phagotrophs to ecosystems, land management and soil properties

Fiore-Donno

Richter-Heitmann

Bonkowski

2020

Preprint

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Highlights  Protistan plant parasites of worldwide importance (Phytomyxea) are absent from forest  Protistan plant parasites are enhanced by land use intensification in grassland  Opposite responses of protistan trophic guilds to environmental conditions in forest  Drastic differences in protistan community composition between grassland and forest Abstract Functional traits are increasingly used in ecology to link the structure of microbial communities to ecosystem processes. We investigated two important protistan lineages, Cercozoa and Endomyxa (Rhizaria) in soil using Illumina sequencing and analysed their diversity and functional traits along with their responses to environmental factors in grassland and forest across Germany. From 600 soil samples, we obtained 2,101 Operational Taxonomy Units representing ~18 million Illumina reads (region V4, 18S rRNA gene). All major taxonomic and functional groups were present, dominated by small bacterivorous flagellates (Glissomonadida). Endomyxan plant parasites were absent from forest. In grassland, they were promoted by more intensive land use management. Grassland and forest strikingly differed in community composition. Relative abundances of bacterivores and eukaryvores were contrastingly influenced by environmental factors, indicating bottom-up regulation by food resources. These patterns provide new insights into the functional organization of soil biota and indications for a more sustainable land-use management.

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“…Shifts in soil community composition (e.g. bacteria: fungi ratio) and activity due to environmental stressors can therefore have significant consequences for carbon cycling 46,47 . Therefore, the fact that previous work on the site demonstrated that belowground biology in the restored heath was not yet comparable to that of the native heathland 31 may have implications for the soil carbon in our field study.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Restored lowland heathlands store substantially less carbon than undisturbed lowland heath

Duddigan,

Hales-Henao,

Bruce

et al. 2024

Commun Earth Environ

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The conversion of lowland heathland to agricultural land in Europe significantly depleted soil carbon stocks. Restoring heathlands has been proposed as a mechanism to sequester soil carbon. Here we compared soil carbon in (i) agricultural pasture; (ii) native heathland and (iii) restored heathland through acidification with elemental sulfur (sulphur). After 18 years of soil acidification, soil chemical properties (pH, extractable nutrients etc.), fauna and vegetation assemblage resembled that of native heathlands. However, native heathland was found to contain more than double the soil carbon stock of restored heath, with significantly higher contents of stable soil organic matter, and restored heath soil carbon was not significantly different to the control pasture. This result, combined with supporting findings of a comprehensive literature review, has ramifications for carbon-sequestration proposals, given the urgency required for climate mitigation tools.

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Food Web Uncertainties Influence Predictions of Climate Change Effects on Soil Carbon Sequestration in Heathlands

Abstract: Laender, F. (2020). Food web uncertainties influence predictions of climate change effects on soil carbon sequestration in heathlands. Microbial ecology, 79(3), 686-693.

Cited by 3 publications

References 42 publications

Contrasting Responses of Protistan Plant Parasites and Phagotrophs to Ecosystems, Land Management and Soil Properties

Contrasting Responses of Protistan Plant Parasites and Phagotrophs to Ecosystems, Land Management and Soil Properties

Contrasting responses of protistan plant parasites and phagotrophs to ecosystems, land management and soil properties

Restored lowland heathlands store substantially less carbon than undisturbed lowland heath

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