1. Short- and Long-term Responses of Nematode Communities to Predicted Rainfall Reduction in Mediterranean Forests
- Author
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Pablo Homet, Jean-Marc Ourcival, Eduardo Gutiérrez, Jara Domínguez-Begines, Luis Matías, Oscar Godoy, Lorena Gómez-Aparicio, Universidad de Sevilla. Departamento de Biología Vegetal y Ecología, Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (MICINN). España, European Commission. Fondo Social Europeo (FSO), Analyses et Expérimentations pour les Ecosystèmes (AnaEE), Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO). España, Observatoire de REcherche Montpelliérain de l’Environnement (OSU OREME), Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación (España), European Commission, Agencia Estatal de Investigación (España), Universidad de Sevilla, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España), French national research infrastructure, Homet, Pablo, Ourcival, J. M., Domínguez Begines, J., Matías Resina, Luis, Godoy, Óscar, and Gómez Aparicio, Lorena
- Subjects
Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss ,Rainfall exclusion ,Soil food web ,Resistance ,Soil Science ,Climate change ,Precipitation ,Experimental drought ,Microbiology ,Soil fauna - Abstract
5 figuras.- 1 tabla.- This article is in Press, Journal Pre-proof, Climate change is a fundamental process affecting terrestrial ecosystems. However, there is relatively little knowledge about its impacts on soil communities, with a large degree of uncertainty regarding their resistance to predicted alterations in temperature and, particularly, precipitation. Moreover, most studies exploring the response of soil biota to predicted rainfall reduction have focused on mesic environments and soil microbes, which limit our ability to find general patterns across ecosystems and soil organisms. In this study, we analysed the impact of predicted climate change scenarios of rainfall reduction on soil food webs of Mediterranean water-limited forests using nematodes as bioindicators. We took advantage of replicated rainfall exclusion infrastructures (30% exclusion) established in Quercus forests of southern Spain in 2016 (2-year exclusion) and of southern France in 2003 (15-year exclusion) to explore the sensitivity of the soil food web to predicted reductions at short- and long-term scales. Rainfall reduction had large negative short-term effects on nematode abundance, particularly of lower trophic groups (bacterivores and fungivores). Rainfall reduction had also consistent short- and long-term impacts on community composition (decrease of fungivores, marginal increase of omnivores) and nematode-based indicators of soil food web structure (higher maturity and structure index, lower prey:predator ratio). These results can be considered indicative of a low resistance of the soil food web to rainfall reductions predicted by climate change. Overall, our findings demonstrate the sensitivity of water-limited forests to further reductions in soil water availability, which might substantially alter their soil communities and likely affect the many ecosystem processes that they control., This study was funded by the MICINN projects INTERCAPA (CGL2014-56739-R) and MICROFUN (RTI2018-094394-B-I00). P.H. was supported by a FPI-MICINN grant. L.M. was supported by the fellowship IV2 from VI-PPIT (Univ. Sevilla) and the project PID2019-108288RA-I00 (MINECO). OG acknowledges financial support provided by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) and by the European Social Fund through the Ramón y Cajal Program (RYC-2017-23666). Puéchabon is supported by the OSU OREME (UMS 3282) and the French national research infrastructure ANAEE-France (ANR-11-INBS-0001).
- Published
- 2023