Global distribution of soil fauna functional groups and their estimated litter consumption across biomes

Heděnec, Petr; Jiménez, Juan J.; Moradi, Jabbar; Domene, Xavier; Hackenberger, Davorka K.; Frossard, Aline; Oktaba, Lidia; Filser, Juliane; Kindlmann, Pavel; Frouz, Jan

doi:10.1038/s41598-022-21563-z

Cited by 34 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 98 publications

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“…In another strong contrast to the first global model of PREDICTS data, soil organisms in pasture attain similar taxon richness and abundance as in primary vegetation. This agrees with other studies that found high soil fauna biomass in temperate grasslands (Heděnec et al, 2022). Pastoral management practices cause less physical disruption of the soil structure than many arable farming practices (Aksoy et al, 2017).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Effects of land use and soil properties on taxon richness and abundance of soil assemblages

Burton,

Baselga,

De Palma

et al. 2023

European J Soil Science

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Land‐use change and habitat degradation are among the biggest drivers of aboveground biodiversity worldwide but their effects on soil biodiversity are less well known, despite the importance of soil organisms in developing soil structure, nutrient cycling and water drainage. Combining a global compilation of biodiversity data from soil assemblages collated as part of the PREDICTS project with global data on soil characteristics, we modelled how taxon richness and total abundance of soil organisms have responded to land use. We also estimated the global Biodiversity Intactness Index (BII)—the average abundance and compositional similarity of taxa that remain in an area, compared to a minimally impacted baseline, for soil biodiversity. This is the first time the BII has been calculated for soil biodiversity. Relative to undisturbed vegetation, soil organism total abundance and taxon richness were reduced in all land uses except pasture. Soil properties mediated the response of soil biota, but not in a consistent way across land uses. The global soil BII in cropland is, on average, a third of that originally present. However, in grazed sites the decline is less severe. The BII of secondary vegetation depends on age, with sites with younger growth showing a lower BII than mature vegetation. We conclude that land‐use change has reduced local soil biodiversity worldwide, and this further supports the proposition that soil biota should be considered explicitly when using global models to estimate the state of biodiversity.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Effects of land use and soil properties on taxon richness and abundance of soil assemblages

Burton,

Baselga,

De Palma

et al. 2023

European J Soil Science

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“…Greater amount of nematode herbivory reduces the plant biomass in general, and changes the biomass allocation pattern as seen in grasslands ( Brinkman et al., 2015 ; Franco et al., 2020 ). The nematodes also help to shape the vegetation community aboveground ( Hedenec et al., 2022 ). As seen in the coastal dune grasslands, the specialist PPNs play pivotal role in natural succession by bringing the end of dominant plant species followed by the non-host plant establishment ( van der Putten et al., 1993 ).…”

Section: Nematodes As Ecosystem Drivers In the Climate Change Continuummentioning

confidence: 99%

The pervasive impact of global climate change on plant-nematode interaction continuum

Rao

Phani

2023

Front. Plant Sci.

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Pest profiles in today’s global food production system are continually affected by climate change and extreme weather. Under varying climatic conditions, plant-parasitic nematodes (PPNs) cause substantial economic damage to a wide variety of agricultural and horticultural commodities. In parallel, their herbivory also accredit to diverse ecosystem services such as nutrient cycling, allocation and turnover of plant biomass, shaping of vegetation community, and alteration of rhizospheric microorganism consortium by modifying the root exudation pattern. Thus PPNs, together with the vast majority of free-living nematodes, act as ecological drivers. Because of direct exposure to the open environment, PPN biology and physiology are largely governed by environmental factors including temperature, precipitation, humidity, atmospheric and soil carbon dioxide level, and weather extremes. The negative effects of climate change such as global warming, elevated CO2, altered precipitation and the weather extremes including heat waves, droughts, floods, wildfires and storms greatly influence the biogeographic range, distribution, abundance, survival, fitness, reproduction, and parasitic potential of the PPNs. Changes in these biological and ecological parameters associated to the PPNs exert huge impact on agriculture. Yet, depending on how adaptable the species are according to their geo-spatial distribution, the consequences of climate change include both positive and negative effects on the PPN communities. While assorting the effects of climate change as a whole, it can be estimated that the changing environmental factors, on one hand, will aggravate the PPN damage by aiding to abundance, distribution, reproduction, generation, plant growth and reduced plant defense, but the phenomena like sex reversal, entering cryptobiosis, and reduced survival should act in counter direction. This seemingly creates a contraposition effect, where assessing any confluent trend is difficult. However, as the climate change effects will differ according to space and time it is apprehensible that the PPNs will react and adapt according to their location and species specificity. Nevertheless, the bio-ecological shifts in the PPNs will necessitate tweaking their management practices from the agri-horticultural perspective. In this regard, we must aim for a ‘climate-smart’ package that will take care of the food production, pest prevention and environment protection. Integrated nematode management involving precise monitoring and modeling-based studies of population dynamics in relation to climatic fluctuations with escalated reliance on biocontrol, host resistance, and other safer approaches like crop rotation, crop scheduling, cover cropping, biofumigation, use of farmyard manure (FYM) would surely prove to be viable options. Although the novel nematicidal molecules are target-specific and relatively less harmful to the environment, their application should not be promoted following the global aim to reduce pesticide usage in future agriculture. Thus, having a reliable risk assessment with scenario planning, the adaptive management strategies must be designed to cope with the impending situation and satisfy the farmers’ need.

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“…mites and collembolas) and macrofauna (e.g. earthworms, isopods and millepedes) are also important contributors to litter decomposition (Anderson 1978;Korboulewskyet al 2016;Heděnec et al 2022). The quality and palatability of plant-derived resources affect soil invertebrate diversity (Cebrian 1999;Kurokawa et al 2010;Bastida et al 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soil invertebrates are the key drivers of litter decomposition in tropical forests

Zeng

Gao

Wang

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Forest litter decomposition is an essential component of global carbon and nutrient turnover. Soil invertebrates play important roles in litter decomposition, but the regional pattern of their effects is poorly understood. We examined 476 case studies across 93 sites and performed a meta-analysis to estimate regional effects of invertebrates on forest litter decomposition. We then assessed how invertebrate diversity, climate and soil pH drive regional variations in invertebrate-mediated decomposition. We found that (1) invertebrate contributions to litter decomposition are 1.5 times higher in tropical forests than forests outside the tropics, with an overall contribution of 31% to global forest litter decomposition; and (2) invertebrate diversity, particularly of termites, together with warm, humid and acidic environments in the tropics are positively associated with forest litter decomposition by soil invertebrates. Our results demonstrate the significant difference in invertebrate effects on mediating forest litter decomposition between the tropics and elsewhere. We demonstrate, also, the significance of termites in driving litter mass loss in the tropics. These results are particularly pertinent in the tropics where climate change and human disturbance threaten soil invertebrate biodiversity and the ecosystem services it provides.

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Global distribution of soil fauna functional groups and their estimated litter consumption across biomes

Cited by 34 publications

References 98 publications

Effects of land use and soil properties on taxon richness and abundance of soil assemblages

Effects of land use and soil properties on taxon richness and abundance of soil assemblages

The pervasive impact of global climate change on plant-nematode interaction continuum

Soil invertebrates are the key drivers of litter decomposition in tropical forests

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