Data/hora: 11/06/2024 22:53:38

Biblioteca(s): | Embrapa Florestas.
Data corrente: | 22/09/2008
Data da última atualização: | 22/09/2008
Autoria: | BRIONES, M. J. I.; OSTLE, N. J.; GARNETT, M. H.; MCNAMARA, N. P.; POSKITT, J.
Título: | Soil fauna responses to climate change: implications for modelling ecosystem carbon function.
Ano de publicação: | 2008
Fonte/Imprenta: | In: INTERNATIONAL COLLOQUIUM ON SOIL ZOOLOGY, 15; INTERNATIONAL COLLOQUIUM ON APTERYGOTA, 12., 2008, Curitiba. Biodiversity, conservation and sustainabele management of soil animal: abstracts. Colombo: Embrapa Florestas. Editors: George Gardner Brown; Klaus Dieter Sautter; Renato Marques; Amarildo Pasini. 1 CD-ROM.
Idioma: | Inglês

Conteúdo:

Soil biodiversity is crucial to the biogeochemical functioning of terrestrial ecosystems. Current
scientific concerns focus on determining the response of biosphere C stocks to climate variability
and the potential for feedbacks of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. In terrestrial ecosystems
most carbon (C) occurs below-ground, making understanding the capacity of soil decomposer
communities to adapt to temperature variations critical to predicting climate change effects on
the global carbon cycle.
Biodiversity has been traditionally used as a synonym of number of species present, however
this definition does not allow good descriptions of ecosystem function since communities with
the same number of species but different species compositions have different effects on soil
processes. Several studies have postulated the importance of focusing on functional groups
and key stone species to provide more plausible explanations of ecosystems functions and
stability. However, the inclusion of functional groups in several models with the aim of elucidating
ecosystem processes has proved to be unsatisfactory. One possible explanation could be the
fact of functional redundancy of species and omnivory being assumed to be high in soils.
Here we examine how warming affects the resilience of soil invertebrate communities to climate
change and their implications for ecosystem functioning. We report the results from several
manipulation experiments as measured changes in gas emissions, plant productivity and in the
diversity, abundance, vertical distribution and feeding capabilities of soil invertebrates.
In brief, our results suggest that warming and the associated decrease in soil moisture content
had little effect on aboveground plant production; however, root biomass and soil respiration,
were significantly increased. Soil invertebrates exhibited individualistic responses to the
temperature increase that contributed to changes in overall community size, trophic structure
and the vertical distribution of some populations. For example, faunal groups with relatively
large body sizesand soft exoskeletons were more sensitive whereas other groups with migration
capabilities exhibited adaptative responses by altering their their habitat location and their diets.
In conclusion, our results suggest a dynamic rather static model for community responses to
climate change. Accordingly, it is not possible to make generalisations regarding overall
community responses to future climate scenarios and research must focus on the responses at
trophic and species levels within their exploited habitat to make better predictions and to develop
more realistic C models.

Categoria do assunto: | --
Registro original: | Embrapa Florestas (CNPF)
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