Category |
Text Publication |
Reference Category |
Journals |
DOI |
10.1111/1365-2664.14004
|
Licence |
|
Title (Primary) |
Low-intensity land-use enhances soil microbial activity, biomass, and fungal-to-bacterial ratio in current and future climates |
Author |
Sünnemann, M.; Alt, C.; Kostin, J.; Lochner, A.; Reitz, T.
; Siebert, J.; Schädler, M.; Eisenhauer, N. |
Source Titel |
Journal of Applied Ecology |
Year |
2021 |
Department |
BZF; BOOEK; iDiv |
Volume |
58 |
Issue |
11 |
Page From |
2614 |
Page To |
2625 |
Language |
englisch |
Topic |
T5 Future Landscapes |
Data and Software links |
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.p8cz8w9r2 |
Supplements |
https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/downloadSupplement?doi=10.1111%2F1365-2664.14004&file=jpe14004-sup-0001-Supinfo.docx |
Keywords |
Land-use intensity; climate change, soil microbial activity; soil microbial biomass; soil microbial community; fungal to bacterial ratio; F/B ratio; AM fungi |
Abstract |
- Progressing climate change and intensified land-use
exert unprecedented pressures on soil microbial communities, thus
endangering the essential ecosystem functions they provide. However,
these global change factors do not act in isolation from each other,
making ecosystem consequences hard to predict.
- To address this knowledge gap, we tested the interactive
effects of climate change and land-use intensity on soil microbial
activity, biomass, and community composition in a large-scale field
experiment. We tested soil microbial responses to a future climate
scenario (ambient climate versus increased temperature by +0.6°C and altered rainfall patterns) in two land-use types (cropland versus grassland) with two levels of land-use intensity each (high-intensity versus
low-intensity). While high-intensity land-use is characterized by
fertilization and pesticide use, low-intensity land-use refrains from
both. We measured soil microbial activity and biomass twice per year
within a 5-year period and used phospholipid fatty acid analysis to
explore changes in microbial community composition.
- In contrast to our expectations, soil microbes remained
largely unaffected by future climate conditions. However, we found
evidence that not just the type of land-use, but also their respective
management intensity (high versus low) had strong effects on soil
microbes. Low-intensity management promoted soil microbial activity and
biomass in grasslands, but this beneficial effect needed several years
to establish. Moreover, we show that low-intensity management increased
AM fungi and fungal-to-bacterial ratios in croplands as well as
grasslands.
- Our study shows that farmers can promote soil ecosystem
functions through low-intensity management measures. In grassland (1),
low-intensity management measures such as high plant diversity
consisting of grasses, forbs, and legumes, and no mineral fertilization
improve soil microbial activity and biomass, as well as the
fungal-to-bacterial ratios. On arable land (2), compliance with EU
organic farming regulations improves the fungal-to-bacterial ratios. We
conclude that low-intensity management can have positive effects on
efficient carbon storage, nutrient cycling, soil erosion control, and
ecosystem multifunctionality under different land-use and climate change
scenarios.
|
Persistent UFZ Identifier |
https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=25046 |
Sünnemann, M., Alt, C., Kostin, J., Lochner, A., Reitz, T., Siebert, J., Schädler, M., Eisenhauer, N. (2021):
Low-intensity land-use enhances soil microbial activity, biomass, and fungal-to-bacterial ratio in current and future climates
J. Appl. Ecol. 58 (11), 2614 - 2625 10.1111/1365-2664.14004 |