TY - JOUR
T1 - Plant species richness sustains higher trophic levels of soil nematode communities after consecutive environmental perturbations
AU - Cesarz, Simone
AU - Ciobanu, Marcel
AU - Wright, Alexandra J.
AU - Ebeling, Anne
AU - Vogel, Anja
AU - Weisser, Wolfgang W.
AU - Eisenhauer, Nico
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany.
PY - 2017/7/1
Y1 - 2017/7/1
N2 - The magnitude and frequency of extreme weather events are predicted to increase in the future due to ongoing climate change. In particular, floods and droughts resulting from climate change are thought to alter the ecosystem functions and stability. However, knowledge of the effects of these weather events on soil fauna is scarce, although they are key towards functioning of terrestrial ecosystems. Plant species richness has been shown to affect the stability of ecosystem functions and food webs. Here, we used the occurrence of a natural flood in a biodiversity grassland experiment that was followed by a simulated summer drought experiment, to investigate the interactive effects of plant species richness, a natural flood, and a subsequent summer drought on nematode communities. Three and five months after the natural flooding, effects of flooding severity were still detectable in the belowground system. We found that flooding severity decreased soil nematode food-web structure (loss of K-strategists) and the abundance of plant feeding nematodes. However, high plant species richness maintained higher diversity and abundance of higher trophic levels compared to monocultures throughout the flood. The subsequent summer drought seemed to be of lower importance but reversed negative flooding effects in some cases. This probably occurred because the studied grassland system is well adapted to drought, or because drought conditions alleviated the negative impact of long-term soil waterlogging. Using soil nematodes as indicator taxa, this study suggests that high plant species richness can maintain soil food web complexity after consecutive environmental perturbations.
AB - The magnitude and frequency of extreme weather events are predicted to increase in the future due to ongoing climate change. In particular, floods and droughts resulting from climate change are thought to alter the ecosystem functions and stability. However, knowledge of the effects of these weather events on soil fauna is scarce, although they are key towards functioning of terrestrial ecosystems. Plant species richness has been shown to affect the stability of ecosystem functions and food webs. Here, we used the occurrence of a natural flood in a biodiversity grassland experiment that was followed by a simulated summer drought experiment, to investigate the interactive effects of plant species richness, a natural flood, and a subsequent summer drought on nematode communities. Three and five months after the natural flooding, effects of flooding severity were still detectable in the belowground system. We found that flooding severity decreased soil nematode food-web structure (loss of K-strategists) and the abundance of plant feeding nematodes. However, high plant species richness maintained higher diversity and abundance of higher trophic levels compared to monocultures throughout the flood. The subsequent summer drought seemed to be of lower importance but reversed negative flooding effects in some cases. This probably occurred because the studied grassland system is well adapted to drought, or because drought conditions alleviated the negative impact of long-term soil waterlogging. Using soil nematodes as indicator taxa, this study suggests that high plant species richness can maintain soil food web complexity after consecutive environmental perturbations.
KW - Aboveground–belowground interactions
KW - Biodiversity–ecosystem functioning
KW - Climate change
KW - Disturbance
KW - Soil fauna
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85020742846&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s00442-017-3893-5
DO - 10.1007/s00442-017-3893-5
M3 - Article
C2 - 28608023
AN - SCOPUS:85020742846
SN - 0029-8549
VL - 184
SP - 715
EP - 728
JO - Oecologia
JF - Oecologia
IS - 3
ER -