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

  • 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.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.show moreshow less

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Author: Klaus BirkhoferORCiD, Andreas FliessbachORCiD, María Pilar Gavín‐CentolORCiD, Katarina Hedlund, María Ingimarsdóttir, Helene Bracht Jørgensen, Katja Kozjek, Svenja MeyerORCiD, Marta Montserrat, Sara Sánchez-MorenoORCiD, Jordi Moya Laraño, Stefan ScheuORCiD, Diego Serrano-Carnero, Jaak TruuORCiD, Dominika KundelORCiD
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-03276-x
ISSN:2045-2322
Title of the source (English):Scientific Reports
Document Type:Scientific journal article peer-reviewed
Language:English
Year of publication:2021
Issue number:11
Article number:23975
Faculty/Chair:Fakultät 2 Umwelt und Naturwissenschaften / FG Ökologie
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