Open AccessWarming alters energetic structure and function but not resilience of soil food webs
Author(s) -
Benjamin Schwarz,
Andrew D. Barnes,
Madhav P. Thakur,
Ulrich Brose,
Marcel Ciobanu,
Peter B. Reich,
Roy Rich,
Benjamin Rosenbaum,
Artur Stefański,
Nico Eisenhauer
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
nature climate change
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.749
H-Index - 189
eISSN - 1758-6798
pISSN - 1758-678X
DOI - 10.1038/s41558-017-0002-z
Subject(s) - environmental science , global warming , ecosystem , trophic level , canopy , ecology , climate change , disturbance (geology) , temperate forest , taiga , atmospheric sciences , temperate rainforest , biology , paleontology , geology
Climate warming is predicted to alter the structure, stability, and functioning of food webs1-5. Yet, despite the importance of soil food webs for energy and nutrient turnover in terrestrial ecosystems, warming effects on these food webs-particularly in combination with other global change drivers-are largely unknown. Here, we present results from two complementary field experiments testing the interactive effects of warming with forest canopy disturbance and drought on energy fluxes 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 fluxes to microbes, while forest canopy disturbance and drought facilitates warming-induced increases in energy flux to higher trophic levels and exacerbates reductions in energy flux to microbes, respectively. Contrary to expectations, we find no change in whole-network resilience to perturbations, but significant losses of 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.