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Food Web Uncertainties Influence Predictions of Climate Change Effects on Soil Carbon Sequestration in Heathlands

Carbon cycling models consider soil carbon sequestration a key process for climate change mitigation. However, these models mostly focus on abiotic soil processes and, despite its recognized critical mechanistic role, do not explicitly include interacting soil organisms. Here, we use a literature study to show that even a relatively simple soil community (heathland soils) contains large uncertainties in temporal and spatial food web structure. Next, we used a Lotka-Volterra-based food web model to demonstrate that, due to these uncertainties, climate change can either increase or decrease soil carbon sequestration to varying extents. Both the strength and direction of changes strongly depend on (1) the main consumer's (enchytraeid worms) feeding preferences and (2) whether decomposers (fungi) or enchytraeid worms are more sensitive to stress. Hence, even for a soil community with a few dominant functional groups and a simulation model with a few parameters, filling these knowledge gaps is a critical first step towards the explicit integration of soil food web dynamics into carbon cycling models in order to better assess the role soils play in climate change mitigation.
- University of Salford United Kingdom
- University of Groningen Netherlands
- Namur Institute for Complex Systems Belgium
- University of Bremen Germany
- Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Netherlands
DECOMPOSITION, DYNAMICS, Carbon Sequestration, Food Chain, Evolution, Climate Change, Heathlands, Soil Science, HEAT, Stress, TERM, Models, Biological, Modelling, Carbon Cycle, SUMMER DROUGHT, Soil, Behavior and Systematics, GRADIENT, Climate change, Ecosystem, Soil Microbiology, Ecology, SPECIES RICHNESS, Food web, Soil carbon sequestration, BIODIVERSITY, COMMUNITIES, TRAITS
DECOMPOSITION, DYNAMICS, Carbon Sequestration, Food Chain, Evolution, Climate Change, Heathlands, Soil Science, HEAT, Stress, TERM, Models, Biological, Modelling, Carbon Cycle, SUMMER DROUGHT, Soil, Behavior and Systematics, GRADIENT, Climate change, Ecosystem, Soil Microbiology, Ecology, SPECIES RICHNESS, Food web, Soil carbon sequestration, BIODIVERSITY, COMMUNITIES, TRAITS
citations This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).4 popularity This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network.Average influence This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).Average impulse This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network.Average
