Climate change and land use induce functional shifts in soil nematode communities

Abstract

Land-use intensification represents one major threat to the diversity and functioning of terrestrial ecosystems. In the face of concurrent climate change, concerns are growing about the ability of intensively managed agroecosystems to ensure stable food provisioning, as they may be particularly vulnerable to climate extreme-induced harvest losses and pest outbreaks. Extensively managed systems, in contrast, were shown to mitigate climate change based on plant diversity-mediated effects, such as higher functional redundancy or asynchrony of species. In this context, the maintenance of soils is essential to sustain key ecosystem functions such as nutrient cycling, pest control, and crop yield. Within the highly diverse soil fauna, nematodes represent an important group as their trophic spectrum ranges from detritivores to predators and they allow inferences to the overall state of the ecosystem (bioindicators). Here, we investigated the effects of simulated climate change and land-use intensity on the diversity and abundance of soil nematode functional groups and functional indices in two consecutive years. We revealed that especially land use induced complex shifts in the nematode community with strong seasonal dynamics, while future climate led to weaker effects. Strikingly, the high nematode densities associated with altered climatic conditions and intensive land use were a consequence of increased densities of opportunists and potential pest species (i.e., plant feeders). This coincided with a less diverse and less structured community with presumably reduced capabilities to withstand environmental stress. These degraded soil food web conditions represent a potential threat to ecosystem functioning and underline the importance of management practices that preserve belowground organisms.