Soil fauna

Climate change and cropland management compromise soil integrity and multifunctionality

Soils provide essential ecosystem functions that are threatened by climate change and intensified land use. We explore how climate and land use impact multiple soil function simultaneously, employing two datasets: (1) observational – 456 samples from …

Functional Potential of Soil Microbial Communities and Their Subcommunities Varies with Tree Mycorrhizal Type and Tree Diversity

Soil microbial communities play crucial roles in the earth’s biogeochemical cycles. Yet, their genomic potential for nutrient cycling in association with tree mycorrhizal type and tree-tree interactions remained unclear, especially in diverse tree …

Tree mycorrhizal type and tree diversity shape the forest soil microbiota

There is limited knowledge on how the association of trees with different mycorrhizal types shapes soil microbial communities in the context of changing tree diversity levels. We used arbuscular (AM) and ectomycorrhizal (EcM) tree species as con- and …

Do Invasive Earthworms Affect the Functional Traits of Native Plants?

As ecosystem engineers, invasive earthworms are one of the main drivers of plant community changes in North American forests previously devoid of earthworms. One explanation for these community changes is the effects of earthworms on the …

Testing soil nematode extraction efficiency using different variations of the Baermann-funnel method

Nematodes are increasingly used as powerful bioindicators of soil food web composition and functioning in ecological studies. Todays’ ecological research aims to investigate not only local relationships but global patterns, which requires consistent …

Chapter Five - Plant functional trait identity and diversity effects on soil meso- and macrofauna in an experimental grassland

Understanding aboveground-belowground linkages and their consequences for ecosystem functioning is a major challenge in soil ecology. It is already well established that soil communities drive essential ecosystem processes, such as nutrient cycling, …