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Conventional agriculture and not drought alters relationships between soil biota and functions

Birkhofer, Klaus ; Fliessbach, Andreas ; Gavín-Centol, Maria Pilar ; Hedlund, Katarina LU orcid ; Ingimarsdottir, Maria LU ; Bracht Jørgensen, Helene LU ; Kozjek, Katja LU ; Meyer, Svenja ; Montserrat, Marta and Sánchez Moreno, Sara , et al. (2021) In Scientific Reports 11.
Abstract
Soil biodiversity constitutes the biological pillars of ecosystem services provided by soils worldwide. Soil life is threatened by intense agricultural management and shifts in climatic conditions as two important global change drivers which are not often jointly studied under field conditions. We addressed the effects of experimental short-term drought over the wheat growing season on soil organisms and ecosystem functions under organic and conventional farming in a Swiss long term trial. Our results suggest that activity and community metrics are suitable indicators for drought stress while microbial communities primarily responded to agricultural practices. Importantly, we found a significant loss of multiple pairwise positive and... (More)
Soil biodiversity constitutes the biological pillars of ecosystem services provided by soils worldwide. Soil life is threatened by intense agricultural management and shifts in climatic conditions as two important global change drivers which are not often jointly studied under field conditions. We addressed the effects of experimental short-term drought over the wheat growing season on soil organisms and ecosystem functions under organic and conventional farming in a Swiss long term trial. Our results suggest that activity and community metrics are suitable indicators for drought stress while microbial communities primarily responded to agricultural practices. Importantly, we found a significant loss of multiple pairwise positive and negative relationships between soil biota and process-related variables in response to conventional farming, but not in response to experimental drought. These results suggest a considerable weakening of the contribution of soil biota to ecosystem functions under long-term conventional agriculture. Independent of the farming system, experimental and seasonal (ambient) drought conditions directly affected soil biota and activity. A higher soil water content during early and intermediate stages of the growing season and a high number of significant relationships between soil biota to ecosystem functions suggest that organic farming provides a buffer against drought effects. (Less)
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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Scientific Reports
volume
11
article number
23975
pages
12 pages
publisher
Nature Publishing Group
external identifiers
  • scopus:85121300174
  • pmid:34907218
ISSN
2045-2322
DOI
10.1038/s41598-021-03276-x
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
0c8650b3-5ad7-4227-8ffc-962cf1831955
date added to LUP
2021-12-21 12:37:19
date last changed
2024-05-04 19:07:23
@article{0c8650b3-5ad7-4227-8ffc-962cf1831955,
  abstract     = {{Soil biodiversity constitutes the biological pillars of ecosystem services provided by soils worldwide. Soil life is threatened by intense agricultural management and shifts in climatic conditions as two important global change drivers which are not often jointly studied under field conditions. We addressed the effects of experimental short-term drought over the wheat growing season on soil organisms and ecosystem functions under organic and conventional farming in a Swiss long term trial. Our results suggest that activity and community metrics are suitable indicators for drought stress while microbial communities primarily responded to agricultural practices. Importantly, we found a significant loss of multiple pairwise positive and negative relationships between soil biota and process-related variables in response to conventional farming, but not in response to experimental drought. These results suggest a considerable weakening of the contribution of soil biota to ecosystem functions under long-term conventional agriculture. Independent of the farming system, experimental and seasonal (ambient) drought conditions directly affected soil biota and activity. A higher soil water content during early and intermediate stages of the growing season and a high number of significant relationships between soil biota to ecosystem functions suggest that organic farming provides a buffer against drought effects.}},
  author       = {{Birkhofer, Klaus and Fliessbach, Andreas and Gavín-Centol, Maria Pilar and Hedlund, Katarina and Ingimarsdottir, Maria and Bracht Jørgensen, Helene and Kozjek, Katja and Meyer, Svenja and Montserrat, Marta and Sánchez Moreno, Sara and Moya-Laraño, Jordi and Scheu, Stefan and Serrano-Carnero, Diego and Truu, Jaak and Kundel, Dominika}},
  issn         = {{2045-2322}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Nature Publishing Group}},
  series       = {{Scientific Reports}},
  title        = {{Conventional agriculture and not drought alters relationships between soil biota and functions}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-03276-x}},
  doi          = {{10.1038/s41598-021-03276-x}},
  volume       = {{11}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}