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Conventional agriculture and not drought alters relationships between soil biota and functions

Birkhofer, Klaus; Fliessbach, Andreas; Gavín-Centol, María Pilar; Hedlund, Katarina; Ingimarsdóttir, María; Bracht Jørgensen, Helene; Kozjek, Katja; Meyer, Svenja; Montserrat, Marta; Sánchez Moreno, Sara; Larano, Moya Jordi; Scheu, Stefan; Serrano-Carnero, Diego; Truu, Jaak and Kundel, Dominika (2021) Conventional agriculture and not drought alters relationships between soil biota and functions. Scientific Reports, 11 (23975), pp. 1-12.

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Document available online at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-03276-x


Summary

Soil biodiversity constitutes the biological pillars of ecosystem services provided by soils worldwide. Soil life is threatened by intense agricultural management and shifts in climatic conditions as two important global change drivers which are not often jointly studied under field conditions. We addressed the effects of experimental short-term drought over the wheat growing season on soil organisms and ecosystem functions under organic and conventional farming in a Swiss long term trial. Our results suggest that activity and community metrics are suitable indicators for drought stress while microbial communities primarily responded to agricultural practices. Importantly, we found a significant loss of multiple pairwise positive and negative relationships between soil biota and process-related variables in response to conventional farming, but not in response to experimental drought. These results suggest a considerable weakening of the contribution of soil biota to ecosystem functions under long-term conventional agriculture. Independent of the farming system, experimental and seasonal (ambient) drought conditions directly affected soil biota and activity. A higher soil water content during early and intermediate stages of the growing season and a high number of significant relationships between soil biota to ecosystem functions suggest that organic farming provides a buffer against drought effects.


EPrint Type:Journal paper
Keywords:agroecology, biodiversity, climate, drought, soil, soil biota, Abacus, FiBL10101, SoilClim
Agrovoc keywords:
Language
Value
URI
English
agroecology
UNSPECIFIED
English
biodiversity
http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_33949
English
climate
http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_1665
English
drought
http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_2391
English
soil
http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_7156
Subjects: Soil > Soil quality
Environmental aspects > Air and water emissions
Research affiliation: Switzerland > FiBL - Research Institute of Organic Agriculture Switzerland > Crops > Field trials > Long-term experiments
Switzerland > FiBL - Research Institute of Organic Agriculture Switzerland > Soil > Soil quality
Switzerland > FiBL - Research Institute of Organic Agriculture Switzerland > Sustainability > Climate
Spain > Other organizations
Sweden > Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU)
Germany > Other organizations
DOI:10.1038/s41598-021-03276-x
Related Links:https://www.fibl.org/en/themes/projectdatabase/projectitem/project/1286
Deposited By: Forschungsinstitut für biologischen Landbau, FiBL
ID Code:43163
Deposited On:05 Jan 2022 13:28
Last Modified:05 Jan 2022 13:45
Document Language:English
Status:Published
Refereed:Peer-reviewed and accepted

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