Intensive grassland management disrupts below-ground multi-trophic resource transfer in response to drought.

ABSTRACT: Modification of soil food webs by land management may alter the response of ecosystem processes to climate extremes, but empirical support is limited and the mechanisms involved remain unclear. Here we quantify how grassland management modifies the transfer of recent photosynthates and soil nitrogen through plants and soil food webs during a post-drought period in a controlled field experiment, using in situ ¹³C and ¹⁵N pulse-labelling in intensively and extensively managed fields. We show that intensive management decrease plant carbon (C) capture and its transfer through components of food webs and soil respiration compared to extensive management. We observe a legacy effect of drought on C transfer pathways mainly in intensively managed grasslands, by increasing pl

SUBMITTER: Chomel M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9668848 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature