Journal ArticleDOI
Soil biodiversity and carbon cycling: A review and synthesis of studies examining diversity-function relationships
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TLDR
There was a positive relationship between species richness and C cycling in 77-100% of low-diversity experiments, even when the richness of just one biotic group was manipulated, whereas positive relationships occurred less frequently in studies with greater richness, which indicated functional redundancy at low extents of diversity.Abstract:
Biodiversity and carbon (C) cycling have been the focus of much research in recent decades, partly because both change as a result of anthropogenic activities that are likely to continue. Soils are extremely species-rich and store approximately 80% of global terrestrial C. Soil organisms play a key role in C dynamics and a loss of species through global changes could influence global C dynamics. Here, we synthesize findings from published studies that have manipulated soil species richness and measured the response in terms of ecosystem functions related to C cycling (such as decomposition, respiration and the abundance or biomass of decomposer biota) to evaluate the impact of biodiversity loss on C dynamics. We grouped studies where one or more biotic groups had been manipulated to include a richness of 10 species in order to reflect 'low' and 'high' extents of diversity manipulations. There was a positive relationship between species richness and C cycling in 77-100% of low-diversity experiments, even when the richness of just one biotic group was manipulated, whereas positive relationships occurred less frequently in studies with greater richness (35-64%). Moreover, when positive relationships were observed, these often indicated functional redundancy at low extents of diversity or that community composition had a stronger influence on C cycling than did species richness. Initial reductions in soil species richness resulting from global changes are unlikely to alter C dynamics significantly unless particularly influential species are lost. However, changes in community composition, and the loss of species with an ability to facilitate specialized soil processes related to C cycling, as a result of global changes, may have larger impacts on C dynamics.read more
Citations
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Belowground biodiversity and ecosystem functioning
TL;DR: Recent progress in understanding belowground biodiversity and its role in determining the ecological and evolutionary responses of terrestrial ecosystems to current and future environmental change are reviewed.
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Ecological intensification: harnessing ecosystem services for food security
TL;DR: Research efforts and investments are particularly needed to reduce existing yield gaps by integrating context-appropriate bundles of ecosystem services into crop production systems.
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Soil organic matter turnover is governed by accessibility not recalcitrance
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore how advances in quantitative analytical techniques have redefined the new understanding of SOM dynamics and how this is affecting the development and application of new modelling approaches to soil C.
Journal ArticleDOI
An Underground Revolution: Biodiversity and Soil Ecological Engineering for Agricultural Sustainability
TL;DR: This work synthesizes the potential of soil organisms to enhance ecosystem service delivery and demonstrates that soil biodiversity promotes multiple ecosystem functions simultaneously (i.e., ecosystem multifunctionality) and applies the concept of ecological intensification to soils.
Journal ArticleDOI
Insights into the resistance and resilience of the soil microbial community
TL;DR: It is suggested that resistance and resilience are governed by soil physico-chemical structure through its effect on microbial community composition and physiology, but that there is no general response to disturbance because stability is particular to the disturbance and soil history.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
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TL;DR: Larger numbers of species are probably needed to reduce temporal variability in ecosystem processes in changing environments and to determine how biodiversity dynamics, ecosystem processes, and abiotic factors interact.
Journal ArticleDOI
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Journal ArticleDOI
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