Synergistic global change impacts on belowground biodiversity and carbon stocks in mountain ecosystems
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Stirling
Department Name: Biological and Environmental Sciences
Abstract
Soil is one of the most complex and important resources on earth. It harbours vast biodiversity that underpins an array of ecosystem functions. Soil also stores more carbon (C) than the Earth's atmosphere and vegetation combined. However, soils are facing multiple challenges globally that threaten to cause soil biodiversity loss, reduce ecosystem functioning, and diminish the capacity of soils to store C.
Understanding how soil biodiversity and soil C stocks will respond to the combined effects of global environmental changes remains extremely challenging. Much of our past understanding is based on studies of single factors that fail to incorporate the complexity of the system and interactions of its component parts. Currently we know little about synergistic effects. Synergistic effects arise when the impact of two or more factors acting together cannot be predicted from their individual impacts. These unforeseen effects can lead to sudden and catastrophic losses in biodiversity and soil C.
Mountain ecosystems occur at all latitudes, are hotspots of biodiversity, and store significant amounts of soil C. However, they are very vulnerable to global environmental change. They are warming twice as fast as the global average, leading to upward shifts in vegetation, and increased extremes of drought and flooding. At the same time, agricultural and industrial pollution are overloading fragile mountain ecosystems with too much nitrogen (N), which can have negative effects on ecosystem processes. Synergistic effects are a particularly pressing knowledge gap in mountain ecosystems, where even fundamental data on soil microbial diversity, functioning, and soil C stocks are lacking.
During this fellowship, I will address the knowledge gap on belowground biodiversity in mountain soils and how this critically underpins C-cycling processes. I will determine how soil biodiversity and functioning respond to multiple drivers of global change, establish if there are synergistic effects, and what the consequences of these synergistic effects are for soil C stocks in mountain ecosystems worldwide.
To do this, I will use three powerful experimental approaches.
1) I will create a globally distributed experiment using both new and existing collaborations to assess how climate, N-deposition rates, and shifts in vegetation control soil C stocks in mountain ecosystems. Participants will send me soil collected from areas with different vegetation types in various mountain ranges and I will measure soil C stocks on all samples. I will use open-access global databases and 3D models to acquire climatic and N-deposition data for each specific location.
2) I will set up experimental manipulations in arctic and alpine mountain ranges to explicitly test how warming, N-addition, and vegetation shifts affect soil biodiversity and C-cycling rates under real-world conditions. This will provide much needed knowledge of the ecological mechanisms by which soil biodiversity loss is connected to C losses from soil following environmental change. I will measure the bacterial, fungal, and invertebrate diversity, along with a suite of C-cycle processes in the soil.
3) I will test whether a legacy of multiple environmental changes amplifies the effects of drought and flooding on greenhouse gas emissions from mountain soils. To do this, I will conduct carefully designed controlled environment experiments using soil collected from the field experiments.
My findings will initiate a paradigm shift away from single factor global change studies, towards a focus on synergistic effects between global change factors. I will also generate important insights on how soil biodiversity contributes to the functioning of mountain ecosystems under different global change scenarios. This new knowledge could be used to inform land managers and policy makers on how best to preserve soil biodiversity and improve natural C storage in mountain ecosystems in the UK and abroad.
Understanding how soil biodiversity and soil C stocks will respond to the combined effects of global environmental changes remains extremely challenging. Much of our past understanding is based on studies of single factors that fail to incorporate the complexity of the system and interactions of its component parts. Currently we know little about synergistic effects. Synergistic effects arise when the impact of two or more factors acting together cannot be predicted from their individual impacts. These unforeseen effects can lead to sudden and catastrophic losses in biodiversity and soil C.
Mountain ecosystems occur at all latitudes, are hotspots of biodiversity, and store significant amounts of soil C. However, they are very vulnerable to global environmental change. They are warming twice as fast as the global average, leading to upward shifts in vegetation, and increased extremes of drought and flooding. At the same time, agricultural and industrial pollution are overloading fragile mountain ecosystems with too much nitrogen (N), which can have negative effects on ecosystem processes. Synergistic effects are a particularly pressing knowledge gap in mountain ecosystems, where even fundamental data on soil microbial diversity, functioning, and soil C stocks are lacking.
During this fellowship, I will address the knowledge gap on belowground biodiversity in mountain soils and how this critically underpins C-cycling processes. I will determine how soil biodiversity and functioning respond to multiple drivers of global change, establish if there are synergistic effects, and what the consequences of these synergistic effects are for soil C stocks in mountain ecosystems worldwide.
To do this, I will use three powerful experimental approaches.
1) I will create a globally distributed experiment using both new and existing collaborations to assess how climate, N-deposition rates, and shifts in vegetation control soil C stocks in mountain ecosystems. Participants will send me soil collected from areas with different vegetation types in various mountain ranges and I will measure soil C stocks on all samples. I will use open-access global databases and 3D models to acquire climatic and N-deposition data for each specific location.
2) I will set up experimental manipulations in arctic and alpine mountain ranges to explicitly test how warming, N-addition, and vegetation shifts affect soil biodiversity and C-cycling rates under real-world conditions. This will provide much needed knowledge of the ecological mechanisms by which soil biodiversity loss is connected to C losses from soil following environmental change. I will measure the bacterial, fungal, and invertebrate diversity, along with a suite of C-cycle processes in the soil.
3) I will test whether a legacy of multiple environmental changes amplifies the effects of drought and flooding on greenhouse gas emissions from mountain soils. To do this, I will conduct carefully designed controlled environment experiments using soil collected from the field experiments.
My findings will initiate a paradigm shift away from single factor global change studies, towards a focus on synergistic effects between global change factors. I will also generate important insights on how soil biodiversity contributes to the functioning of mountain ecosystems under different global change scenarios. This new knowledge could be used to inform land managers and policy makers on how best to preserve soil biodiversity and improve natural C storage in mountain ecosystems in the UK and abroad.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Arthur Broadbent (Principal Investigator / Fellow) |