Land use alters the resistance and resilience of soil food webs to drought

• Published in: Nature climate change Vol. 2; no. 4; pp. 276 - 280
• Main Authors: de Vries, Franciska T., Liiri, Mira E., Bjørnlund, Lisa, Bowker, Matthew A., Christensen, Søren, Setälä, Heikki M., Bardgett, Richard D.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01.04.2012; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 631/158/2165; 631/158/2458; 631/326/171/1818; 704/106/47; Biota; Carbon sequestration; Climate Change; Climate change mitigation; Climate Change/Climate Change Impacts; Drought; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecosystem services; Environment; Environmental Law/Policy/Ecojustice; Food production; Food webs; Grasslands; Land use; letter; Nitrogen cycle; Nutrient cycles; Soils; Sustainable food systems; Sustainable production; Triticum aestivum; Wheat

A study shows that soil food webs directly help mitigate the effects of drought on soil nutrients. The fungal-based food webs of grassland were more resistant to bouts of drought than the bacterial-based food webs of intensively managed wheat, and retained more carbon and nitrogen in the soil. Soils...