Soil microarthropods are only weakly impacted after 13 years of repeated drought treatment in wet and dry heathland soils

TY - JOUR

T1 - Soil microarthropods are only weakly impacted after 13 years of repeated drought treatment in wet and dry heathland soils

AU - Holmstrup, Martin

AU - Sørensen, Jesper G.

AU - Schmidt, Inger Kappel

AU - Nielsen, Pia Lund

AU - Mason, Sharon

AU - Tietema, Albert

AU - Smith, Andrew R.

AU - Bataillon, Thomas

AU - Beier, Claus

AU - Ehlers, Bodil

PY - 2013

Y1 - 2013

N2 - Studies of biological responses in the terrestrial environment to rapid changes in climate have mostly been concerned with aboveground biota, whereas less is known of belowground organisms. The present study focuses on mites and springtails of heathland ecosystems and how the microarthropod community has responded to simulated climate change in a long-term field experiment. Increased temperature and repeated drought was applied for 13 years to field plots located in Wales, The Netherlands and Denmark representing sites of contrasting climatic conditions with respect to precipitation and temperature. This approach provided an opportunity to study biological responses on a local (within sites) and regional scale. Warming treatments increasing night time temperature (0.3-1°C higher than ambient at 5cm soil depth) had no detectable effects on the microarthropod communities. Increased intensity and frequency of drought had only weak persistent effects on springtail species composition, but practically no effect on major mite groups (Oribatida, Prostigmata or Mesostigmata) suggesting that ecosystem functions of microarthropods may only be transiently impacted by repeated spring or summer drought.

AB - Studies of biological responses in the terrestrial environment to rapid changes in climate have mostly been concerned with aboveground biota, whereas less is known of belowground organisms. The present study focuses on mites and springtails of heathland ecosystems and how the microarthropod community has responded to simulated climate change in a long-term field experiment. Increased temperature and repeated drought was applied for 13 years to field plots located in Wales, The Netherlands and Denmark representing sites of contrasting climatic conditions with respect to precipitation and temperature. This approach provided an opportunity to study biological responses on a local (within sites) and regional scale. Warming treatments increasing night time temperature (0.3-1°C higher than ambient at 5cm soil depth) had no detectable effects on the microarthropod communities. Increased intensity and frequency of drought had only weak persistent effects on springtail species composition, but practically no effect on major mite groups (Oribatida, Prostigmata or Mesostigmata) suggesting that ecosystem functions of microarthropods may only be transiently impacted by repeated spring or summer drought.

U2 - 10.1016/j.soilbio.2013.06.023

DO - 10.1016/j.soilbio.2013.06.023

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0038-0717

VL - 66

SP - 110

EP - 118

JO - Soil Biology & Biochemistry

JF - Soil Biology & Biochemistry

ER -