Land-use and land-management change: relationships with earthworm and fungi communities and soil structural properties.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Change in land use and management can impact massively on soil ecosystems. Ecosystem engineers and other functional biodiversity in soils can be influenced directly by such change and this in turn can affect key soil functions. Here, we employ meta-analysis to provide a quantitative assessment of the effects of changes in land use and land management across a range of successional/extensification transitions (conventional arable → no or reduced tillage → grassland → wooded land) on community metrics for two functionally important soil taxa, earthworms and fungi. An analysis of the relationships between community change and soil structural properties was also included.

Results

Meta-analysis highlighted a consistent trend of increased earthworm and fungal community

SUBMITTER: Spurgeon DJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4219611 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature