TY - JOUR
T1 - Reduced feeding activity of soil detritivores under warmer and drier conditions
AU - Thakur, Madhav P.
AU - Reich, Peter B.
AU - Hobbie, Sarah E.
AU - Stefanski, Artur
AU - Rich, Roy
AU - Rice, Karen E.
AU - Eddy, William C.
AU - Eisenhauer, Nico
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author (s) 2017, under exclusive licence to Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2018/1/1
Y1 - 2018/1/1
N2 - Anthropogenic warming is projected to trigger positive feedbacks to climate by enhancing carbon losses from the soil 1 . While such losses are, in part, due to increased decomposition of organic matter by invertebrate detritivores, it is unknown how detritivore feeding activity will change with warming 2, especially under drought conditions. Here, using four-year manipulation experiments in two North American boreal forests, we investigate how temperature (ambient, ambient + 1.7 °C and ambient + 3.4 °C) and rainfall (ambient and -40% of the summer precipitation) perturbations influence detritivore feeding activity. In contrast to general expectations 1,3, warming had negligible net effects on detritivore feeding activity at ambient precipitation. However, when combined with precipitation reductions, warming decreased feeding activity by ~14%. Across all plots and dates, detritivore feeding activity was positively associated with bulk soil microbial respiration. These results suggest slower rates of decomposition of soil organic matter and thus reduced positive feedbacks to climate under anthropogenic climate change.
AB - Anthropogenic warming is projected to trigger positive feedbacks to climate by enhancing carbon losses from the soil 1 . While such losses are, in part, due to increased decomposition of organic matter by invertebrate detritivores, it is unknown how detritivore feeding activity will change with warming 2, especially under drought conditions. Here, using four-year manipulation experiments in two North American boreal forests, we investigate how temperature (ambient, ambient + 1.7 °C and ambient + 3.4 °C) and rainfall (ambient and -40% of the summer precipitation) perturbations influence detritivore feeding activity. In contrast to general expectations 1,3, warming had negligible net effects on detritivore feeding activity at ambient precipitation. However, when combined with precipitation reductions, warming decreased feeding activity by ~14%. Across all plots and dates, detritivore feeding activity was positively associated with bulk soil microbial respiration. These results suggest slower rates of decomposition of soil organic matter and thus reduced positive feedbacks to climate under anthropogenic climate change.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85038375909&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85038375909&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s41558-017-0032-6
DO - 10.1038/s41558-017-0032-6
M3 - Article
C2 - 29375673
AN - SCOPUS:85038375909
SN - 1758-678X
VL - 8
SP - 75
EP - 78
JO - Nature Climate Change
JF - Nature Climate Change
IS - 1
ER -