Multiple anthropogenic pressures eliminate the effects of soil microbial diversity on ecosystem functions in experimental microcosms

Gaowen Yang (), Masahiro Ryo, Julien Roy, Daniel R. Lammel, Max-Bernhard Ballhausen, Xin Jing, Xuefeng Zhu and Matthias C. Rillig
Additional contact information
Gaowen Yang: China Agricultural University
Masahiro Ryo: Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF)
Julien Roy: Freie Universität Berlin
Daniel R. Lammel: Freie Universität Berlin
Max-Bernhard Ballhausen: Freie Universität Berlin
Xin Jing: Lanzhou University
Xuefeng Zhu: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Matthias C. Rillig: Freie Universität Berlin

Nature Communications, 2022, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract Biodiversity is crucial for the provision of ecosystem functions. However, ecosystems are now exposed to a rapidly growing number of anthropogenic pressures, and it remains unknown whether biodiversity can still promote ecosystem functions under multifaceted pressures. Here we investigated the effects of soil microbial diversity on soil functions and properties when faced with an increasing number of simultaneous global change factors in experimental microcosms. Higher soil microbial diversity had a positive effect on soil functions and properties when no or few (i.e., 1–4) global change factors were applied, but this positive effect was eliminated by the co-occurrence of numerous global change factors. This was attributable to the reduction of soil fungal abundance and the relative abundance of an ecological cluster of coexisting soil bacterial and fungal taxa. Our study indicates that reducing the number of anthropogenic pressures should be a goal in ecosystem management, in addition to biodiversity conservation.

Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-31936-7 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:13:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-022-31936-7

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

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-31936-7

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 ().