Warming alters energetic structure and function but not resilience of soil food webs

Schwarz, Benjamin; Barnes, Andrew D.; Thakur, Madhav P.; Brose, Ulrich; Ciobanu, Marcel; Reich, Peter B.; Rich, Roy L.; Rosenbaum, Benjamin; Stefanski, Artur; Eisenhauer, Nico

doi:10.1038/s41558-017-0002-z

Title: Warming alters energetic structure and function but not resilience of soil food webs

Journal Article · Mon Nov 06 00:00:00 EST 2017 · Nature Climate Change

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-017-0002-z· OSTI ID:1546788

^[1];

^[2]; Thakur, Madhav P. ^[3];

^[4]; Ciobanu, Marcel ^[5]; Reich, Peter B. ^[6]; Rich, Roy L. ^[7]; Rosenbaum, Benjamin ^[4]; Stefanski, Artur ^[8];

^[3]

Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN (United States); Albert-Ludwigs-Univ. Freiburg, Freiburg (Germany)
German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig (German); Leipzig Univ., Leipzig (Germany); Univ. of Muenster, Muenster (Germany)
German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig (German); Leipzig Univ., Leipzig (Germany)
Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN (United States); German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig (German)
National Inst. of Research and Development for Biological Sciences, Cluj-Napoca (Romania). Inst. of Biological Research
Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN (United States); Western Sydney Univ., Penrith, NSW (Australia)
Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN (United States); Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Edgewater, MD (United States)
Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN (United States)

Climate warming is predicted to alter the structure, stability, and functioning of food webs. Yet, despite the importance of soil food webs for energy and nutrient turnover in terrestrial ecosystems, the effects of warming on these food webs—particularly in combination with other global change drivers—are largely unknown. Here, we present results from two complementary field experiments that test the interactive effects of warming with forest canopy disturbance and drought on energy flux in boreal–temperate ecotonal forest soil food webs. The first experiment applied a simultaneous above- and belowground warming treatment (ambient, +1.7 °C, +3.4 °C) to closed-canopy and recently clear-cut forest, simulating common forest disturbance6. The second experiment crossed warming with a summer drought treatment (-40% rainfall) in the clear-cut habitats. We show that warming reduces energy flux to microbes, while forest canopy disturbance and drought facilitates warming-induced increases in energy flux to higher trophic levels and exacerbates the reduction in energy flux to microbes, respectively. Contrary to expectations, we find no change in whole-network resilience to perturbations, but significant losses in ecosystem functioning. Warming thus interacts with forest disturbance and drought, shaping the energetic structure of soil food webs and threatening the provisioning of multiple ecosystem functions in boreal–temperate ecotonal forests.

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Research Organization:: Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE; German Research Foundation (DFG)

Grant/Contract Number:: FG02-07ER64456; 677232

OSTI ID:: 1546788

Journal Information:: Nature Climate Change, Vol. 7, Issue 12; ISSN 1758-678X

Publisher:: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 48 works

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