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

ABSTRACT: 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-re

SUBMITTER: Birkhofer K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8671559 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature