Land use and soil characteristics affect soil organisms differently from above-ground assemblages

Victoria J Burton; Sara Contu; Adriana De Palma; Samantha L L Hill; Harald Albrecht; James S Bone; Daniel Carpenter; Ronald Corstanje; Pallieter De Smedt; Mark Farrell; Helen V Ford; Lawrence N Hudson; Kelly Inward; David T Jones; Agnieszka Kosewska; Nancy F Lo-Man-Hung; Tibor Magura; Christian Mulder; Maka Murvanidze; Tim Newbold; Jo Smith; Andrew V Suarez; Sasha Suryometaram; Béla Tóthmérész; Marcio Uehara-Prado; Adam J Vanbergen; Kris Verheyen; Karen Wuyts; Jörn P W Scharlemann; Paul Eggleton; Andy Purvis

doi:10.1186/s12862-022-02089-4

Land use and soil characteristics affect soil organisms differently from above-ground assemblages

BMC Ecol Evol. 2022 Nov 17;22(1):135. doi: 10.1186/s12862-022-02089-4.

Authors

Victoria J Burton^{1

2}, Sara Contu³, Adriana De Palma³, Samantha L L Hill⁴, Harald Albrecht⁵, James S Bone⁶, Daniel Carpenter³, Ronald Corstanje⁷, Pallieter De Smedt⁸, Mark Farrell⁹, Helen V Ford¹⁰, Lawrence N Hudson³, Kelly Inward³, David T Jones³, Agnieszka Kosewska¹¹, Nancy F Lo-Man-Hung¹², Tibor Magura^{13

14}, Christian Mulder¹⁵, Maka Murvanidze¹⁶, Tim Newbold¹⁷, Jo Smith¹⁸, Andrew V Suarez¹⁹, Sasha Suryometaram²⁰, Béla Tóthmérész²¹, Marcio Uehara-Prado²², Adam J Vanbergen²³, Kris Verheyen⁸, Karen Wuyts²⁴, Jörn P W Scharlemann²⁵, Paul Eggleton³, Andy Purvis^{3

26}

Affiliations

¹ Science and Solutions for a Changing Planet DTP, and the Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College, London, UK. [email protected].
² Natural History Museum, London, UK. [email protected].
³ Natural History Museum, London, UK.
⁴ United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre, Cambridge, UK.
⁵ Technische Universitaet Muenchen, Chair of Restoration Ecology, Freising, Germany.
⁶ Environmental Resources Management (ERM) Limited, London, UK.
⁷ Cranfield University, Cranfield, UK.
⁸ Forest and Nature Lab, Department of Environment, Ghent University, Gontrode (Melle), Ghent, Belgium.
⁹ CSIRO Agriculture and Food, Glen Osmond, Kaurna Country, Australia.
¹⁰ Bangor University, Bangor, UK.
¹¹ Department of Entomology, Phytopathology and Molecular Diagnostics, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Olsztyn, Poland.
¹² Laboratory of Gene Expression and Evolution in Arthropods, Department of Genetics and Evolutionary Biology, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
¹³ Department of Ecology, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary.
¹⁴ ELKH-DE Anthropocene Ecology Research Group, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary.
¹⁵ Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences, University of Catania, Catania, Italy.
¹⁶ Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences, FI. Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Tbilisi, Georgia.
¹⁷ Centre for Biodiversity and Environment Research, Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London, London, UK.
¹⁸ MV Agroecological Research Centre PT, Mértola, Portugal.
¹⁹ Department of Evolution, Ecology and Behavior and Department of Entomology, University of Illinois, Urbana, USA.
²⁰ Wildlife Conservation Society, Indonesia Program, Bogor, Indonesia.
²¹ MTA-DE Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Research Group, Debrecen, Hungary.
²² Independent Researcher, Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil.
²³ Agroécologie, INRAE, Institut Agro, Univ. Bourgogne, Univ. Bourgogne Franche-Comté, 21000, Dijon, France.
²⁴ Lab of Environmental and Urban Ecology, Research Group Environmental Ecology and Microbiology (ENdEMIC), Department of Bioscience Engineering, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium.
²⁵ School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK.
²⁶ Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Silwood Park, Ascot, UK.

Abstract

Background: Land-use is a major driver of changes in biodiversity worldwide, but studies have overwhelmingly focused on above-ground taxa: the effects on soil biodiversity are less well known, despite the importance of soil organisms in ecosystem functioning. We modelled data from a global biodiversity database to compare how the abundance of soil-dwelling and above-ground organisms responded to land use and soil properties.

Results: We found that land use affects overall abundance differently in soil and above-ground assemblages. The abundance of soil organisms was markedly lower in cropland and plantation habitats than in primary vegetation and pasture. Soil properties influenced the abundance of soil biota in ways that differed among land uses, suggesting they shape both abundance and its response to land use.

Conclusions: Our results caution against assuming models or indicators derived from above-ground data can apply to soil assemblages and highlight the potential value of incorporating soil properties into biodiversity models.

Keywords: Land-use; Land-use intensity; Mixed-effects models; Organism abundance; Soil biodiversity; Soil biota.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Biodiversity
Biota
Ecosystem*
Soil Microbiology
Soil*

Substances

Soil