Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Intensive agriculture reduces soil biodiversity across Europe

Tsiafouli, Maria A. ; Thebault, Elisa ; Sgardelis, Stefanos P. ; de Ruiter, Peter C. ; van der Putten, Wim H. ; Birkhofer, Klaus LU ; Hemerik, Lia ; de Vries, Franciska T. ; Bardgett, Richard D. and Brady, Mark Vincent LU orcid , et al. (2015) In Global Change Biology 21(2). p.973-985
Abstract
Soil biodiversity plays a key role in regulating the processes that underpin the delivery of ecosystem goods and services in terrestrial ecosystems. Agricultural intensification is known to change the diversity of individual groups of soil biota, but less is known about how intensification affects biodiversity of the soil food web as a whole, and whether or not these effects may be generalized across regions. We examined biodiversity in soil food webs from grasslands, extensive, and intensive rotations in four agricultural regions across Europe: in Sweden, the UK, the Czech Republic and Greece. Effects of land-use intensity were quantified based on structure and diversity among functional groups in the soil food web, as well as on... (More)
Soil biodiversity plays a key role in regulating the processes that underpin the delivery of ecosystem goods and services in terrestrial ecosystems. Agricultural intensification is known to change the diversity of individual groups of soil biota, but less is known about how intensification affects biodiversity of the soil food web as a whole, and whether or not these effects may be generalized across regions. We examined biodiversity in soil food webs from grasslands, extensive, and intensive rotations in four agricultural regions across Europe: in Sweden, the UK, the Czech Republic and Greece. Effects of land-use intensity were quantified based on structure and diversity among functional groups in the soil food web, as well as on community-weighted mean body mass of soil fauna. We also elucidate land-use intensity effects on diversity of taxonomic units within taxonomic groups of soil fauna. We found that between regions soil food web diversity measures were variable, but that increasing land-use intensity caused highly consistent responses. In particular, land-use intensification reduced the complexity in the soil food webs, as well as the community-weighted mean body mass of soil fauna. In all regions across Europe, species richness of earthworms, Collembolans, and oribatid mites was negatively affected by increased land-use intensity. The taxonomic distinctness, which is a measure of taxonomic relatedness of species in a community that is independent of species richness, was also reduced by land-use intensification. We conclude that intensive agriculture reduces soil biodiversity, making soil food webs less diverse and composed of smaller bodied organisms. Land-use intensification results in fewer functional groups of soil biota with fewer and taxonomically more closely related species. We discuss how these changes in soil biodiversity due to land-use intensification may threaten the functioning of soil in agricultural production systems. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; and , et al. (More)
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; and (Less)
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
agricultural intensification, body mass, ecosystem services, functional, groups, soil food web, taxonomic breadth, taxonomic distinctness, terrestrial ecosystems
in
Global Change Biology
volume
21
issue
2
pages
973 - 985
publisher
Wiley-Blackwell
external identifiers
  • wos:000348652400038
  • scopus:84923217568
  • pmid:25242445
ISSN
1354-1013
DOI
10.1111/gcb.12752
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
81858999-a2bd-41bd-bc2f-5aad6bf636ae (old id 5187153)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 10:28:07
date last changed
2024-02-14 13:38:51
@article{81858999-a2bd-41bd-bc2f-5aad6bf636ae,
  abstract     = {{Soil biodiversity plays a key role in regulating the processes that underpin the delivery of ecosystem goods and services in terrestrial ecosystems. Agricultural intensification is known to change the diversity of individual groups of soil biota, but less is known about how intensification affects biodiversity of the soil food web as a whole, and whether or not these effects may be generalized across regions. We examined biodiversity in soil food webs from grasslands, extensive, and intensive rotations in four agricultural regions across Europe: in Sweden, the UK, the Czech Republic and Greece. Effects of land-use intensity were quantified based on structure and diversity among functional groups in the soil food web, as well as on community-weighted mean body mass of soil fauna. We also elucidate land-use intensity effects on diversity of taxonomic units within taxonomic groups of soil fauna. We found that between regions soil food web diversity measures were variable, but that increasing land-use intensity caused highly consistent responses. In particular, land-use intensification reduced the complexity in the soil food webs, as well as the community-weighted mean body mass of soil fauna. In all regions across Europe, species richness of earthworms, Collembolans, and oribatid mites was negatively affected by increased land-use intensity. The taxonomic distinctness, which is a measure of taxonomic relatedness of species in a community that is independent of species richness, was also reduced by land-use intensification. We conclude that intensive agriculture reduces soil biodiversity, making soil food webs less diverse and composed of smaller bodied organisms. Land-use intensification results in fewer functional groups of soil biota with fewer and taxonomically more closely related species. We discuss how these changes in soil biodiversity due to land-use intensification may threaten the functioning of soil in agricultural production systems.}},
  author       = {{Tsiafouli, Maria A. and Thebault, Elisa and Sgardelis, Stefanos P. and de Ruiter, Peter C. and van der Putten, Wim H. and Birkhofer, Klaus and Hemerik, Lia and de Vries, Franciska T. and Bardgett, Richard D. and Brady, Mark Vincent and Bjornlund, Lisa and Bracht Jörgensen, Helene and Christensen, Soren and D'Hertefeldt, Tina and Hotes, Stefan and Hol, W. H. Gera and Frouz, Jan and Liiri, Mira and Mortimer, Simon R. and Setala, Heikki and Tzanopoulos, Joseph and Uteseny, Karoline and Pizl, Vaclav and Stary, Josef and Wolters, Volkmar and Hedlund, Katarina}},
  issn         = {{1354-1013}},
  keywords     = {{agricultural intensification; body mass; ecosystem services; functional; groups; soil food web; taxonomic breadth; taxonomic distinctness; terrestrial ecosystems}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{2}},
  pages        = {{973--985}},
  publisher    = {{Wiley-Blackwell}},
  series       = {{Global Change Biology}},
  title        = {{Intensive agriculture reduces soil biodiversity across Europe}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/gcb.12752}},
  doi          = {{10.1111/gcb.12752}},
  volume       = {{21}},
  year         = {{2015}},
}