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Katarina Hedlund

Katarina Hedlund

Professor

Katarina Hedlund

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

Author

  • Klaus Birkhofer
  • Andreas Fliessbach
  • Maria Pilar Gavín-Centol
  • Katarina Hedlund
  • Maria Ingimarsdottir
  • Helene Bracht Jørgensen
  • Katja Kozjek
  • Svenja Meyer
  • Marta Montserrat
  • Sara Sánchez Moreno
  • Jordi Moya-Laraño
  • Stefan Scheu
  • Diego Serrano-Carnero
  • Jaak Truu
  • Dominika Kundel
Show all

Summary, in English

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.

Department/s

  • Soil Ecology
  • Centre for Environmental and Climate Science (CEC)
  • Biodiversity
  • BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate

Publishing year

2021

Language

English

Publication/Series

Scientific Reports

Volume

11

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Nature Publishing Group

Topic

  • Soil Science

Status

Published

Research group

  • Soil Ecology

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 2045-2322