Ecological memory of recurrent drought modifies soil processes via changes in soil microbial community.

ABSTRACT: Climate change is altering the frequency and severity of drought events. Recent evidence indicates that drought may produce legacy effects on soil microbial communities. However, it is unclear whether precedent drought events lead to ecological memory formation, i.e., the capacity of past events to influence current ecosystem response trajectories. Here, we utilize a long-term field experiment in a mountain grassland in central Austria with an experimental layout comparing 10 years of recurrent drought events to a single drought event and ambient conditions. We show that recurrent droughts increase the dissimilarity of microbial communities compared to control and single drought events, and enhance soil multifunctionality during drought (calculated via measurements of potential enzymatic a

SUBMITTER: Canarini A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8421443 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature