Richard D. Bardgett

TL;DR: This work synthesizes emerging understanding of the intrinsic and extrinsic factors that influence the resistance and resilience of soil microbial communities to climate extremes, with a focus on drought, and identifies drivers that might trigger abrupt changes to alternative states.

TL;DR: Findings show that grassland management affects mechanisms of N retention in soil through changes in root and microbial uptake of N, and support the notion that microbial communities might be the key to improved N retention through tightening linkages between plants and microbes and reducing N availability.

TL;DR: The findings indicate that drought has a substantial impact on the availability of floral resources in calcareous grassland, which will have consequences for pollinator behaviour and populations.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the vast diversity of organisms that live in the soil and discuss the various factors that regulate its spatial and temporal patterning, and argue that patterning of soil biodiversity is related primarily to the heterogeneous nature, or patchiness, of the soil environment at different spatial and time scales, and that this heterogeneity provides unrivalled potential for niche partitioning, or resource and habitat specialisation, leading to avoidance of competition and hence coexistence of species.