Publication
Title
Responses of soil hexapod communities to increasing nitrogen in a subarctic grassland
Author
Abstract
The warming of boreal ecosystems accelerates decomposition and increases nitrogen (N) availability. The impact of increased N on subarctic soil fauna communities, however, remains poorly understood. We investigated the response of soil hexapods to a N addition experiment in a subarctic grassland. We characterized the soil hexapod communities using environmental DNA metabarcoding and analyzed the levels of dissolved organic carbon (DOC), dissolved organic nitrogen (DON), microbial carbon (Cmic), and microbial nitrogen (Nmic). N addition increased DON and Nmic, while DOC and Cmic pools remained unchanged. Furthermore, N addition caused shifts in soil hexapod community compositional diversity between control and N plots in herbivore and microbivore taxa. The levels of DON and Nmic strongly correlated with these shifts, explaining 54% and 45% of the compositional variability, respectively. This study demonstrates a clear link between N availability and shifts in soil hexapod communities, associated to changes in microbial and dissolved N pools in subarctic grasslands.
Language
English
Source (journal)
Soil biology and biochemistry. - Oxford
Publication
Oxford : Pergamon-elsevier science ltd , 2024
ISSN
0038-0717
DOI
10.1016/J.SOILBIO.2023.109228
Volume/pages
188 (2024) , p. 1-4
Article Reference
109228
ISI
001166237700001
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
Full text (open access)
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Research group
Publication type
Subject
Affiliation
Publications with a UAntwerp address
External links
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 04.03.2024
Last edited 25.05.2024
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