Belowground biodiversity and ecosystem functioning

@article{Bardgett2014BelowgroundBA,
  title={Belowground biodiversity and ecosystem functioning},
  author={Richard D. Bardgett and Wim van der Putten},
  journal={Nature},
  year={2014},
  volume={515},
  pages={505-511}
}
Evidence is mounting that the immense diversity of microorganisms and animals that live belowground contributes significantly to shaping aboveground biodiversity and the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems. Our understanding of how this belowground biodiversity is distributed, and how it regulates the structure and functioning of terrestrial ecosystems, is rapidly growing. Evidence also points to soil biodiversity as having a key role in determining the ecological and evolutionary responses… 
View on Nature
cb.iee.unibe.ch
1,746 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
13
Background Citations
327
Methods Citations
6
Results Citations
2

1,746 Citations

Introduction: The Role of Soil Biodiversity in Ecosystem Productivity and Resilience

Biodiversity, both above- and belowground, is positively linked with ecosystem productivity and stability. The relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem function is far better researched and…

Soil Biodiversity and the Environment

Soils represent a significant reservoir of biological diversity that underpins a broad range of key processes and moderate ecosystem service provision. Our understanding of the role that soil…

How Soil Biota Drive Ecosystem Stability.

Changes in belowground biodiversity during ecosystem development

Significance We do not know how and why belowground biodiversity may change as soils develop over centuries to millennia, hampering our ability to predict the myriad of ecosystem processes regulated…

Structure and functioning of dryland ecosystems in a changing world.

This synthesis highlights the importance of biotic attributes (e.g. species richness) in maintaining fundamental ecosystem processes such as primary productivity, illustrates how N deposition and grazing pressure are impacting ecosystem functioning in drylands worldwide, and highlights the role of the traits of woody species as drivers of their expansion in former grasslands.

Towards an integrative understanding of soil biodiversity

A systematic literature review is presented to investigate whether and how key biodiversity theories (species–energy relationship, theory of island biogeography, metacommunity theory, niche theory and neutral theory) can explain observed patterns of soil biodiversity.

Global mismatches in aboveground and belowground biodiversity

Protecting aboveground biodiversity may not sufficiently reduce threats to soil biodiversity, and soil biodiversity should be considered further in policy agendas and conservation actions by adapting management practices to sustain soil biodiversity and considering soil biodiversity when designing protected areas.

The links between ecosystem multifunctionality and above- and belowground biodiversity are mediated by climate

Plant biodiversity is often correlated with ecosystem functioning in terrestrial ecosystems. However, we know little about the relative and combined effects of above- and belowground biodiversity on…

Coupling of soil prokaryotic diversity and plant diversity across latitudinal forest ecosystems

It is found that soil prokaryotic diversity couples with the diversity of herbs rather than trees, and this findings revealed that herbs provide a good predictor of belowground biodiversity in forest ecosystems, and provide new perspective on the aboveground and belowground interactions in Forest ecosystems.

Invertebrate mediated biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationships : lessons from tropical forest dung beetles

Diversity in dung beetle communities is positively associated with the ecological processes they govern but that environmental context is instrumental in modulating biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationships, as demonstrated in this thesis.
...

References

SHOWING 1-10 OF 113 REFERENCES

Ecological Linkages Between Aboveground and Belowground Biota

This work shows how aboveground and belowground components are closely interlinked at the community level, reinforced by a greater degree of specificity between plants and soil organisms than has been previously supposed.

Biological diversity and function in soils.

A renaissance in soil biodiversity research is led by many leading contributions on the role and importance of soil biota, which is reflected in this new volume.

Soil Ecology and Ecosystem Services

This multi-contributor, international volume synthesizes contributions from the world's leading soil scientists and ecologists, describing cutting-edge research that provides a basis for the…

Soil biodiversity and soil community composition determine ecosystem multifunctionality

It is found that reductions in the abundance and presence of soil organisms results in the decline of multiple ecosystem functions, including plant diversity and nutrient cycling and retention, suggesting that below-ground biodiversity is a key resource for maintaining the functioning of ecosystems.

Modelling the effects of loss of soil biodiversity on ecosystem function

There are concerns about whether accelerating worldwide loss of biodiversity will adversely affect ecosystem functioning and services such as forage production. Theoretically, the loss of some…

Consequences of biodiversity loss for litter decomposition across biomes

Reducing the functional diversity of decomposer organisms and plant litter types slowed the cycling of litter carbon and nitrogen, and the emergence of this general mechanism and the coherence of patterns across contrasting terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems suggest that biodiversity loss has consistent consequences for litter decomposition and the Cycling of major elements on broad spatial scales.

Mycorrhizal fungal diversity determines plant biodiversity, ecosystem variability and productivity

It is shown that below-ground diversity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) is a major factor contributing to the maintenance of plant biodiversity and to ecosystem functioning, and that microbial interactions can drive ecosystem functions such as plant biodiversity, productivity and variability.

Biodiversity Effects on Soil Processes Explained by Interspecific Functional Dissimilarity

Using soil microcosms, it is shown experimentally that functional dissimilarity among detritivorous species, not species number, drives community compositional effects on leaf litter mass loss and soil respiration, two key soil ecosystem processes.

Soil biodiversity and carbon cycling: A review and synthesis of studies examining diversity-function relationships

There was a positive relationship between species richness and C cycling in 77-100% of low-diversity experiments, even when the richness of just one biotic group was manipulated, whereas positive relationships occurred less frequently in studies with greater richness, which indicated functional redundancy at low extents of diversity.

Impacts of Soil Faunal Community Composition on Model Grassland Ecosystems

It is hypothesize that positive and negative faunal-mediated effects in soil communities cancel each other out, causing no net ecosystem effects.
...