Dataset Information

Changes in belowground biodiversity during ecosystem development.

ABSTRACT: Belowground organisms play critical roles in maintaining multiple ecosystem processes, including plant productivity, decomposition, and nutrient cycling. Despite their importance, however, we have a limited understanding of how and why belowground biodiversity (bacteria, fungi, protists, and invertebrates) may change as soils develop over centuries to millennia (pedogenesis). Moreover, it is unclear whether belowground biodiversity changes during pedogenesis are similar to the patterns observed for aboveground plant diversity. Here we evaluated the roles of resource availability, nutrient stoichiometry, and soil abiotic factors in driving belowground biodiversity across 16 soil chronosequences (from centuries to millennia) spanning a wide range of globally distributed ecosystem types. Changes in belowground biodiversity during pedogenesis followed two main patterns. In lower-productivity ecosystems (i.e., drier and colder), increases in belowground biodiversity tracked increases in plant cover. In more productive ecosystems (i.e., wetter and warmer), increased acidification during pedogenesis was associated with declines in belowground biodiversity. Changes in the diversity of bacteria, fungi, protists, and invertebrates with pedogenesis were strongly and positively correlated worldwide, highlighting that belowground biodiversity shares similar ecological drivers as soils and ecosystems develop. In general, temporal changes in aboveground plant diversity and belowground biodiversity were not correlated, challenging the common perception that belowground biodiversity should follow similar patterns to those of plant diversity during ecosystem development. Taken together, our findings provide evidence that ecological patterns in belowground biodiversity are predictable across major globally distributed ecosystem types and suggest that shifts in plant cover and soil acidification during ecosystem development are associated with changes in belowground biodiversity over centuries to millennia.

SUBMITTER: Delgado-Baquerizo M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6452688 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Changes in belowground biodiversity during ecosystem development.

Delgado-Baquerizo Manuel M Bardgett Richard D RD Vitousek Peter M PM Maestre Fernando T FT Williams Mark A MA Eldridge David J DJ Lambers Hans H Neuhauser Sigrid S Gallardo Antonio A García-Velázquez Laura L Sala Osvaldo E OE Abades Sebastián R SR Alfaro Fernando D FD Berhe Asmeret A AA Bowker Matthew A MA Currier Courtney M CM Cutler Nick A NA Hart Stephen C SC Hayes Patrick E PE Hseu Zeng-Yei ZY Kirchmair Martin M Peña-Ramírez Victor M VM Pérez Cecilia A CA Reed Sasha C SC Santos Fernanda F Siebe Christina C Sullivan Benjamin W BW Weber-Grullon Luis L Fierer Noah N

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20190315 14

Belowground organisms play critical roles in maintaining multiple ecosystem processes, including plant productivity, decomposition, and nutrient cycling. Despite their importance, however, we have a limited understanding of how and why belowground biodiversity (bacteria, fungi, protists, and invertebrates) may change as soils develop over centuries to millennia (pedogenesis). Moreover, it is unclear whether belowground biodiversity changes during pedogenesis are similar to the patterns observed ...[more]

PMID: 30877251

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Dataset Information

Changes in belowground biodiversity during ecosystem development.

Publications

Changes in belowground biodiversity during ecosystem development.

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