Geologically younger ecosystems are more dependent on soil biodiversity for supporting function

Jiao Feng, Yu-Rong Liu (), David Eldridge, Qiaoyun Huang, Wenfeng Tan and Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo ()
Additional contact information
Jiao Feng: Huazhong Agricultural University
Yu-Rong Liu: Huazhong Agricultural University
David Eldridge: University of New South Wales
Qiaoyun Huang: Huazhong Agricultural University
Wenfeng Tan: Huazhong Agricultural University
Manuel Delgado-Baquerizo: Av. Reina Mercedes 10

Nature Communications, 2024, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract Soil biodiversity contains the metabolic toolbox supporting organic matter decomposition and nutrient cycling in the soil. However, as soil develops over millions of years, the buildup of plant cover, soil carbon and microbial biomass may relax the dependence of soil functions on soil biodiversity. To test this hypothesis, we evaluate the within-site soil biodiversity and function relationships across 87 globally distributed ecosystems ranging in soil age from centuries to millennia. We found that within-site soil biodiversity and function relationship is negatively correlated with soil age, suggesting a stronger dependence of ecosystem functioning on soil biodiversity in geologically younger than older ecosystems. We further show that increases in plant cover, soil carbon and microbial biomass as ecosystems develop, particularly in wetter conditions, lessen the critical need of soil biodiversity to sustain function. Our work highlights the importance of soil biodiversity for supporting function in drier and geologically younger ecosystems with low microbial biomass.

Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-48289-y Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:15:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-024-48289-y

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-48289-y

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().