Fast attrition of springtail communities by experimental drought and richness–decomposition relationships across Europe

Guille Peguero; Daniel Sol; Miquel Arnedo; Henning Petersen; Sandrine Salmon; Jean François Ponge; Joan Maspons; Bridget Emmett; Claus Beier; Inger K. Schmidt; Albert Tietema; Paolo De Angelis; Edit Kovács-Láng; György Kröel-Dulay; Marc Estiarte; Mireia Bartrons; Martin Holmstrup; Ivan A. Janssens; Josep Peñuelas

doi:10.1111/gcb.14685

Fast attrition of springtail communities by experimental drought and richness–decomposition relationships across Europe

Guille Peguero^*, Daniel Sol, Miquel Arnedo, Henning Petersen, Sandrine Salmon, Jean François Ponge, Joan Maspons, Bridget Emmett, Claus Beier, Inger K. Schmidt, Albert Tietema, Paolo De Angelis, Edit Kovács-Láng, György Kröel-Dulay, Marc Estiarte, Mireia Bartrons, Martin Holmstrup, Ivan A. Janssens, Josep Peñuelas

^*Corresponding author for this work

Forest, Nature and Biomass

3 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Soil fauna play a fundamental role on key ecosystem functions like organic matter decomposition, although how local assemblages are responding to climate change and whether these changes may have consequences to ecosystem functioning is less clear. Previous studies have revealed that a continued environmental stress may result in poorer communities by filtering out the most sensitive species. However, these experiments have rarely been applied to climate change factors combining multiyear and multisite standardized field treatments across climatically contrasting regions, which has limited drawing general conclusions. Moreover, other facets of biodiversity, such as functional and phylogenetic diversity, potentially more closely linked to ecosystem functioning, have been largely neglected. Here, we report that the abundance, species richness, phylogenetic diversity, and functional richness of springtails (Subclass Collembola), a major group of fungivores and detritivores, decreased within 4 years of experimental drought across six European shrublands. The loss of phylogenetic and functional richness was higher than expected by the loss of species richness, leading to communities of phylogenetically similar species sharing evolutionary conserved traits. Additionally, despite the great climatic differences among study sites, we found that taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional richness of springtail communities alone were able to explain up to 30% of the variation in annual decomposition rates. Altogether, our results suggest that the forecasted reductions in precipitation associated with climate change may erode springtail communities and likely other drought-sensitive soil invertebrates, thereby retarding litter decomposition and nutrient cycling in ecosystems.

Original language	English
Journal	Global Change Biology
Volume	25
Issue number	8
Pages (from-to)	2727-2738
Number of pages	12
ISSN	1354-1013
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14685
Publication status	Published - 2019

Keywords

biodiversity-ecosystem functioning
climate change
Collembola
drought
litter decomposition
shrublands
soil fauna

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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Peguero, G., Sol, D., Arnedo, M., Petersen, H., Salmon, S., Ponge, J. F., Maspons, J., Emmett, B., Beier, C., Schmidt, I. K., Tietema, A., De Angelis, P., Kovács-Láng, E., Kröel-Dulay, G., Estiarte, M., Bartrons, M., Holmstrup, M., Janssens, I. A., & Peñuelas, J. (2019). Fast attrition of springtail communities by experimental drought and richness–decomposition relationships across Europe. Global Change Biology, 25(8), 2727-2738. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14685

Peguero, G, Sol, D, Arnedo, M, Petersen, H, Salmon, S, Ponge, JF, Maspons, J, Emmett, B, Beier, C , Schmidt, IK, Tietema, A, De Angelis, P, Kovács-Láng, E, Kröel-Dulay, G, Estiarte, M, Bartrons, M, Holmstrup, M, Janssens, IA & Peñuelas, J 2019, 'Fast attrition of springtail communities by experimental drought and richness–decomposition relationships across Europe', Global Change Biology, vol. 25, no. 8, pp. 2727-2738. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14685

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title = "Fast attrition of springtail communities by experimental drought and richness–decomposition relationships across Europe",

abstract = "Soil fauna play a fundamental role on key ecosystem functions like organic matter decomposition, although how local assemblages are responding to climate change and whether these changes may have consequences to ecosystem functioning is less clear. Previous studies have revealed that a continued environmental stress may result in poorer communities by filtering out the most sensitive species. However, these experiments have rarely been applied to climate change factors combining multiyear and multisite standardized field treatments across climatically contrasting regions, which has limited drawing general conclusions. Moreover, other facets of biodiversity, such as functional and phylogenetic diversity, potentially more closely linked to ecosystem functioning, have been largely neglected. Here, we report that the abundance, species richness, phylogenetic diversity, and functional richness of springtails (Subclass Collembola), a major group of fungivores and detritivores, decreased within 4 years of experimental drought across six European shrublands. The loss of phylogenetic and functional richness was higher than expected by the loss of species richness, leading to communities of phylogenetically similar species sharing evolutionary conserved traits. Additionally, despite the great climatic differences among study sites, we found that taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional richness of springtail communities alone were able to explain up to 30% of the variation in annual decomposition rates. Altogether, our results suggest that the forecasted reductions in precipitation associated with climate change may erode springtail communities and likely other drought-sensitive soil invertebrates, thereby retarding litter decomposition and nutrient cycling in ecosystems.",

keywords = "biodiversity-ecosystem functioning, climate change, Collembola, drought, litter decomposition, shrublands, soil fauna",

author = "Guille Peguero and Daniel Sol and Miquel Arnedo and Henning Petersen and Sandrine Salmon and Ponge, {Jean Fran{\c c}ois} and Joan Maspons and Bridget Emmett and Claus Beier and Schmidt, {Inger K.} and Albert Tietema and {De Angelis}, Paolo and Edit Kov{\'a}cs-L{\'a}ng and Gy{\"o}rgy Kr{\"o}el-Dulay and Marc Estiarte and Mireia Bartrons and Martin Holmstrup and Janssens, {Ivan A.} and Josep Pe{\~n}uelas",

year = "2019",

doi = "10.1111/gcb.14685",

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volume = "25",

pages = "2727--2738",

journal = "Global Change Biology",

issn = "1354-1013",

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T1 - Fast attrition of springtail communities by experimental drought and richness–decomposition relationships across Europe

AU - Peguero, Guille

AU - Sol, Daniel

AU - Arnedo, Miquel

AU - Petersen, Henning

AU - Salmon, Sandrine

AU - Ponge, Jean François

AU - Maspons, Joan

AU - Emmett, Bridget

AU - Beier, Claus

AU - Schmidt, Inger K.

AU - Tietema, Albert

AU - De Angelis, Paolo

AU - Kovács-Láng, Edit

AU - Kröel-Dulay, György

AU - Estiarte, Marc

AU - Bartrons, Mireia

AU - Holmstrup, Martin

AU - Janssens, Ivan A.

AU - Peñuelas, Josep

PY - 2019

Y1 - 2019

N2 - Soil fauna play a fundamental role on key ecosystem functions like organic matter decomposition, although how local assemblages are responding to climate change and whether these changes may have consequences to ecosystem functioning is less clear. Previous studies have revealed that a continued environmental stress may result in poorer communities by filtering out the most sensitive species. However, these experiments have rarely been applied to climate change factors combining multiyear and multisite standardized field treatments across climatically contrasting regions, which has limited drawing general conclusions. Moreover, other facets of biodiversity, such as functional and phylogenetic diversity, potentially more closely linked to ecosystem functioning, have been largely neglected. Here, we report that the abundance, species richness, phylogenetic diversity, and functional richness of springtails (Subclass Collembola), a major group of fungivores and detritivores, decreased within 4 years of experimental drought across six European shrublands. The loss of phylogenetic and functional richness was higher than expected by the loss of species richness, leading to communities of phylogenetically similar species sharing evolutionary conserved traits. Additionally, despite the great climatic differences among study sites, we found that taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional richness of springtail communities alone were able to explain up to 30% of the variation in annual decomposition rates. Altogether, our results suggest that the forecasted reductions in precipitation associated with climate change may erode springtail communities and likely other drought-sensitive soil invertebrates, thereby retarding litter decomposition and nutrient cycling in ecosystems.

AB - Soil fauna play a fundamental role on key ecosystem functions like organic matter decomposition, although how local assemblages are responding to climate change and whether these changes may have consequences to ecosystem functioning is less clear. Previous studies have revealed that a continued environmental stress may result in poorer communities by filtering out the most sensitive species. However, these experiments have rarely been applied to climate change factors combining multiyear and multisite standardized field treatments across climatically contrasting regions, which has limited drawing general conclusions. Moreover, other facets of biodiversity, such as functional and phylogenetic diversity, potentially more closely linked to ecosystem functioning, have been largely neglected. Here, we report that the abundance, species richness, phylogenetic diversity, and functional richness of springtails (Subclass Collembola), a major group of fungivores and detritivores, decreased within 4 years of experimental drought across six European shrublands. The loss of phylogenetic and functional richness was higher than expected by the loss of species richness, leading to communities of phylogenetically similar species sharing evolutionary conserved traits. Additionally, despite the great climatic differences among study sites, we found that taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional richness of springtail communities alone were able to explain up to 30% of the variation in annual decomposition rates. Altogether, our results suggest that the forecasted reductions in precipitation associated with climate change may erode springtail communities and likely other drought-sensitive soil invertebrates, thereby retarding litter decomposition and nutrient cycling in ecosystems.

KW - biodiversity-ecosystem functioning

KW - climate change

KW - Collembola

KW - drought

KW - litter decomposition

KW - shrublands

KW - soil fauna

U2 - 10.1111/gcb.14685

DO - 10.1111/gcb.14685

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 31206913

AN - SCOPUS:85067498119

SN - 1354-1013

VL - 25

SP - 2727

EP - 2738

JO - Global Change Biology

JF - Global Change Biology

IS - 8

ER -

Fast attrition of springtail communities by experimental drought and richness–decomposition relationships across Europe

Abstract

Keywords

UN SDGs

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