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Food Web Uncertainties Influence Predictions of Climate Change Effects on Soil Carbon Sequestration in Heathlands

  • Soil Microbiology
  • Published:
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Abstract

Carbon cycling models consider soil carbon sequestration a key process for climate change mitigation. However, these models mostly focus on abiotic soil processes and, despite its recognized critical mechanistic role, do not explicitly include interacting soil organisms. Here, we use a literature study to show that even a relatively simple soil community (heathland soils) contains large uncertainties in temporal and spatial food web structure. Next, we used a Lotka–Volterra-based food web model to demonstrate that, due to these uncertainties, climate change can either increase or decrease soil carbon sequestration to varying extents. Both the strength and direction of changes strongly depend on (1) the main consumer’s (enchytraeid worms) feeding preferences and (2) whether decomposers (fungi) or enchytraeid worms are more sensitive to stress. Hence, even for a soil community with a few dominant functional groups and a simulation model with a few parameters, filling these knowledge gaps is a critical first step towards the explicit integration of soil food web dynamics into carbon cycling models in order to better assess the role soils play in climate change mitigation.

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Funding

This study was financially supported by BOF (Bijzonder Onderzoeksfonds) and FSR (Fonds Spécial de Recherche) (both Special Research Funds) from Hasselt University and Namur University, respectively, under the research grant number BOF15DOCNA02.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Biology Research Group, Centre for Environmental Sciences, Hasselt University, Agoralaan Building D, 3590, Diepenbeek, Belgium

    Wouter Reyns, Francois Rineau & Natalie Beenaerts

  2. Research Unit of Environmental and Evolutionary Biology, Namur Institute of Complex Systems, and Institute of Life, Earth, and the Environment, University of Namur, Namur, Belgium

    Wouter Reyns, Jürg W. Spaak & Frederik De Laender

  3. Section of Animal Ecology, Department of Ecological Science, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1085, 1081, HV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Oscar Franken & Matty P. Berg

  4. Community and Conservation Ecology Group, Groningen Institute of Evolutionary Life Science, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 7, 9747, AG, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Matty P. Berg

  5. Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung, Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, Senckenberganlage 25, 60325, Frankfurt, Germany

    Fons Van Der Plas

  6. Department of Systematic Botany and Functional Biodiversity, University of Leipzig, Johannisallee 21-23, 04103, Leipzig, Germany

    Fons Van Der Plas

  7. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Michael Smith Building, The University of Manchester, M13 9PT, Manchester, UK

    Richard D. Bardgett

Authors
  1. Wouter Reyns
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  2. Francois Rineau
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  3. Jürg W. Spaak
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  4. Oscar Franken
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  6. Fons Van Der Plas
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  7. Richard D. Bardgett
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  8. Natalie Beenaerts
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  9. Frederik De Laender
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Correspondence to Wouter Reyns.

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Reyns, W., Rineau, F., Spaak, J.W. et al. Food Web Uncertainties Influence Predictions of Climate Change Effects on Soil Carbon Sequestration in Heathlands. Microb Ecol 79, 686–693 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-019-01444-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-019-01444-1

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