@article {4295, title = {Soil nematode abundance and functional group composition at a global scale}, journal = {Nature}, volume = {572}, year = {2019}, month = {08/2019}, abstract = {

Soil organisms are a crucial part of the terrestrial biosphere. Despite their importance for ecosystem functioning, few quantitative, spatially explicit models of the active belowground community currently exist. In particular, nematodes are the most abundant animals on Earth, filling all trophic levels in the soil food web. Here we use 6,759 georeferenced samples to generate a mechanistic understanding of the patterns of the global abundance of nematodes in the soil and the composition of their functional groups. The resulting maps show that 4.4 \± 0.64 \× 1020 nematodes (with a total biomass of approximately 0.3 gigatonnes) inhabit surface soils across the world, with higher abundances in sub-Arctic regions (38\% of total) than in temperate (24\%) or tropical (21\%) regions. Regional variations in these global trends also provide insights into local patterns of soil fertility and functioning. These high-resolution models provide the first steps towards representing soil ecological processes in global biogeochemical models and will enable the prediction of elemental cycling under current and future climate scenarios.

}, keywords = {LTER-MCM}, doi = {10.1038/s41586-019-1418-6}, url = {https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1418-6}, author = {van den Hoogen, Johan and Geisen, Stefan and Routh, Devin and Ferris, Howard and Traunspurger, Walter and Wardle, D and de Goede, Ron G. M. and Byron Adams and Ahmad, Wasim and Andriuzzi, Walter S. and Richard D. Bardgett and Bonkowski, Michael and Campos-Herrera, Raquel and Cares, Juvenil E. and Caruso, Tancredi and de Brito Caixeta, Larissa and Chen, Xiaoyun and Costa, Sofia R. and Creamer, Rachel and Mauro da Cunha Castro, Jos{\'e} and Dam, Marie and Djigal, Djibril and Escuer, Miguel and Griffiths, Bryan S. and Guti{\'e}rrez, Carmen and Hohberg, Karin and Kalinkina, Daria and Kardol, Paul and Kergunteuil, Alan and Korthals, Gerard and Krashevska, Valentyna and Kudrin, Alexey A. and Li, Qi and Liang, Wenju and Magilton, Matthew and Marais, Mariette and Mart{\'\i}n, Jos{\'e} Antonio Rodr{\'\i}guez and Matveeva, Elizaveta and Mayad, El Hassan and Mulder, Christian and Mullin, Peter and Neilson, Roy and Nguyen, T. A. Duong and Uffe N. Nielsen and Okada, Hiroaki and Rius, Juan Emilio Palomares and Pan, Kaiwen and Peneva, Vlada and Pellissier, Lo{\"\i}c and Carlos Pereira da Silva, Julio and Pitteloud, Camille and Powers, Thomas O. and Powers, Kirsten and Quist, Casper W. and Rasmann, Sergio and Moreno, Sara S{\'a}nchez and Scheu, Stefan and Set{\"a}l{\"a}, Heikki and Sushchuk, Anna and Tiunov, Alexei V. and Trap, Jean and van der Putten, W and Vesterg{\r a}rd, Mette and Villenave, Cecile and Waeyenberge, Lieven and Diana H. Wall and Wilschut, Rutger and Wright, Daniel G. and Yang, Jiue-in and Crowther, Thomas Ward} } @article {4060, title = {Observed trends of soil fauna in the Antarctic Dry Valleys: early signs of shifts predicted under climate change}, journal = {Ecology}, volume = {99}, year = {2018}, month = {02/2018}, pages = {312 - 321}, abstract = {

Long-term observations of ecological communities are necessary for generating and testing predictions of ecosystem responses to climate change. We investigated temporal trends and spatial patterns of soil fauna along similar environmental gradients in three sites of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica, spanning two distinct climatic phases: a decadal cool- ing trend from the early 1990s through the austral summer of February 2001, followed by a shift to the current trend of warming summers and more frequent discrete warming events. After February 2001, we observed a decline in the dominant species (the nematode Scottnema lindsayae) and increased abundance and expanded distribution of less common taxa (rotifers, tardigrades, and other nematode species). Such diverging responses have resulted in slightly greater evenness and spatial homogeneity of taxa. However, total abundance of soil fauna appears to be declining, as positive trends of the less common species so far have not compen- sated for the declining numbers of the dominant species. Interannual variation in the propor- tion of juveniles in the dominant species was consistent across sites, whereas trends in abundance varied more. Structural equation modeling supports the hypothesis that the observed biological trends arose from dissimilar responses by dominant and less common spe- cies to pulses of water availability resulting from enhanced ice melt. No direct effects of mean summer temperature were found, but there is evidence of indirect effects via its weak but signif- icant positive relationship with soil moisture. Our findings show that combining an under- standing of species responses to environmental change with long-term observations in the field can provide a context for validating and refining predictions of ecological trends in the abun- dance and diversity of soil fauna.\ 

}, keywords = {LTER-MCM}, doi = {10.1002/ecy.2090}, url = {http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/ecy.2090/full}, author = {Andriuzzi, Walter S. and Byron Adams and John E. Barrett and Ross A. Virginia and Diana H. Wall} } @article {4107, title = {Spatial and temporal patterns of microbial mats and associated invertebrates along an Antarctic stream}, journal = {Polar Biology}, volume = {41}, year = {2018}, month = {10/2018}, pages = {1911{\textendash}1921}, abstract = {

Microbial biofilms are biological hotspots in many alpine and polar ecosystems, but the controls on and functional significance of their fauna are little known. We studied cyanobacterial mats and the underlying sediment in a glacial meltwater stream in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica. We investigated mat biomass (total and phototrophic), diatoms, and micro-meiofauna (nematodes, rotifers, and tardigrades) at nine sites along a 1670 m stream reach in a cold, low-flow growing season, and in a warmer growing season in which peak flows (above 100 L s\−1) scoured the mats. Diatom and invertebrate communities were not related, but mat biomass in the low-flow year was negatively related to nematode abundance, including that of the omnivore\ Eudorylaimus. In the high-flow year that followed, invertebrate abundance was reduced in the mats, diatom community structure was altered, and mat biomass was higher. The difference in invertebrate abundance between years was greater in mats in upstream reaches, where the greatest increases in flow velocity may have occurred, and was negligible in mats in downstream reaches as well as in the sediment beneath the mats. Integrating our results with previous findings, we generate two predictive hypotheses to be tested in glacial meltwater streams: (1) under peak flows invertebrates decline in the microbial mats, while (2) the sediment beneath the mats is a refuge from the flow disturbance. Our results also suggest that, under stable flow conditions, microinvertebrate grazers could exert top-down control on microbial mat biomass.

}, keywords = {LTER-MCM, diatoms, Disturbance, Dry valleys, Epilithon, Microfauna, Stream flow}, doi = {10.1007/s00300-018-2331-4}, url = {http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s00300-018-2331-4}, author = {Andriuzzi, Walter S. and Lee F. Stanish and Breana L. Simmons and Chris Jaros and Byron Adams and Diana H. Wall and Diane M. McKnight} } @article {4024, title = {Decoupled responses of soil bacteria and their invertebrate consumer to warming, but not freeze-thaw cycles, in the Antarctic Dry Valleys}, journal = {Ecology Letters}, volume = {20}, year = {2017}, month = {10/2017}, pages = {1242-1249}, abstract = {

Altered temperature profiles resulting in increased warming and freeze\–thaw cycle (FTC) frequency pose great ecological challenges to organisms in alpine and polar ecosystems. We performed a laboratory microcosm experiment to investigate how temperature variability affects soil bacterial cell numbers, and abundance and traits of soil microfauna (the microbivorous nematode Scottnema lindsayae) from McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica. FTCs and constant freezing shifted nematode body size distribution towards large individuals, driven by higher mortality among smaller individuals. FTCs reduced both bacterial and nematode abundance, but bacterial cell numbers also declined under warming, demonstrating decoupled consumer\–prey responses. We predict that higher occurrence of FTCs in cold ecosystems will select for large body size within soil microinvertebrates and overall reduce their abundance. In contrast, warm temperatures without FTCs could lead to divergent responses in soil bacteria and their microinvertebrate consumers, potentially affecting energy and nutrient transfer rates in soil food webs of cold ecosystems.

}, keywords = {LTER-MCM}, doi = {10.1111/ele.12819}, url = {http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ele.12819/full}, author = {Matthew Knox and Andriuzzi, Walter S. and Heather N. Buelow and Cristina D. Takacs-Vesbach and Byron Adams and Diana H. Wall} }