Controls on the stability of soils and their functioning under land use and climate change
Lead Research Organisation:
Queen's University Belfast
Department Name: Sch of Biological Sciences
Abstract
Soils provide many functions for humans, including the storage of carbon and nutrient cycling, which are crucial for the production of food and mitigation of climate change. However, there is much concern that soils, and the functions that they provide, are being threatened by a range of pressures, including intensive farming methods and increased frequency of extreme climatic events, such as drought. Not only do these disturbances pose an immediate threat to the functioning of soils, but they could also impair their ability to resist and recover from further stresses that come in the future.
Our project will tackle this problem by addressing two general questions: first, what makes a soil able to withstand and recover from disturbance events, such as drought, and, second how can we use this knowledge to ensure soils can buffer disturbances in the future? These are questions that have puzzled soil scientists for many years, but so far, remain unresolved. An area that offers much promise, however, in tackling this issue is food web ecology. Food webs are the networks of interactions describing who eats whom amongst the myriad organisms within an ecosystem. And in soil, they are the engine that drives the very processes of nutrient cycling and energy flow on which the functioning of soil and the terrestrial ecosystems they support, depend. It has been proposed for many years, but so far not fully tested in soil, that simple food webs are less able to withstand and recover from disturbance events, such as drought than complex ones. We want to test this theory in soil, which harbours some of the most complex, but also sensitive, food webs on Earth. We test the idea, through experiments and models, that the ability of a soil to withstand, recover and adapt to disturbance events depends on the architecture and diversity of the soil food web, which governs the rate of transfer of nutrients and energy through the plant-soil system. We also propose that soil disturbances associated with intensive land use, such as trampling and fertiliser addition, erode the very food web structures that make the soil system stable, thereby reducing the ability of soil to resist and recover from future disturbances, such as extreme weather events. We will also resolve what makes a food web stable, and test the roles of different types of organisms in soil, such as mycorrhizal fungi, which we believe play a major role. And finally, we will develop new models to help us better predict how soils will respond to future threats and to guide management decisions on sustainable soil management in a rapidly changing world.
These question are at the heart of the NERC Soil Security programme which seeks to resolve what controls the ability of soils and their functions to resist, recover and ultimately adapt, to perturbations, such as those caused by land use and extreme climatic events.
Our project will tackle this problem by addressing two general questions: first, what makes a soil able to withstand and recover from disturbance events, such as drought, and, second how can we use this knowledge to ensure soils can buffer disturbances in the future? These are questions that have puzzled soil scientists for many years, but so far, remain unresolved. An area that offers much promise, however, in tackling this issue is food web ecology. Food webs are the networks of interactions describing who eats whom amongst the myriad organisms within an ecosystem. And in soil, they are the engine that drives the very processes of nutrient cycling and energy flow on which the functioning of soil and the terrestrial ecosystems they support, depend. It has been proposed for many years, but so far not fully tested in soil, that simple food webs are less able to withstand and recover from disturbance events, such as drought than complex ones. We want to test this theory in soil, which harbours some of the most complex, but also sensitive, food webs on Earth. We test the idea, through experiments and models, that the ability of a soil to withstand, recover and adapt to disturbance events depends on the architecture and diversity of the soil food web, which governs the rate of transfer of nutrients and energy through the plant-soil system. We also propose that soil disturbances associated with intensive land use, such as trampling and fertiliser addition, erode the very food web structures that make the soil system stable, thereby reducing the ability of soil to resist and recover from future disturbances, such as extreme weather events. We will also resolve what makes a food web stable, and test the roles of different types of organisms in soil, such as mycorrhizal fungi, which we believe play a major role. And finally, we will develop new models to help us better predict how soils will respond to future threats and to guide management decisions on sustainable soil management in a rapidly changing world.
These question are at the heart of the NERC Soil Security programme which seeks to resolve what controls the ability of soils and their functions to resist, recover and ultimately adapt, to perturbations, such as those caused by land use and extreme climatic events.
Planned Impact
Who will benefit from our research?
Project beneficiaries will include the bioscience, ecology and wider scientific research community interested in sustainable and productive food production. Key stakeholders include landowners, farmers groups (e.g. NFU, SNFU, NFUW, HCC, EBLEX, QMS, Soil Association), societies (BES, BSSS), conservation bodies (Plant Life, The Grassland Trust, British Grassland Society, Wildlife Trusts) and local and national government departments (Defra; EA) and agencies (SEPA; EA, Natural England; Countryside Council for Wales, Scottish Natural Heritage) who will benefit as science supported policy develops. We will liaise with BSSS and the Global Soil Partnership to ensure our project goals are integrated into the planned activities for International Year of Soils 2015.
Other beneficiaries are commercial organisations involved in habitat restoration, in particular, horticultural businesses that supply native seed and seed mixes. These businesses stand to benefit from our research through learning (via knowledge exchange; KE) how drought, land management and soil conditions influences communities to resist and recover from the effects of climate change. These organisations also have a financial interest in being able to produce seed mixtures that are stress resistant, and that are more likely to result in habitat restoration that remains successful over the long-term.
It will be vital that our findings are communicated to non-academics and non-researchers within the plant breeding community and end-users. Engagement with these groups will be facilitated though two stakeholder workshops, and through interaction with the Cool Farm Alliance, an umbrella organisation that liaises with numerous businesses with interests in agricultural-related matters. We will also showcase our findings and portfolio of expertise through presentations to farmers groups, building on our existing network forums, public talks and online resources (e.g. You Tube).
How will they benefit from our research?
Data generated in this project will have major implications for our potential to alter soil C and N cycling through land management. A key component of the work is the integration of empirical data with predictive models: this opens up opportunities to gain rapid insight into how specific environmental and edaphic contexts may affect the ability of soils to resist, recover and adapt to perturbations such as drought. Our work will open up the possibility for input of our mechanistic framework into farm management systems, aimed at, for example, coupling enhanced/sustained yields (cf food security) with C storage potential and mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions.
Members of the general public will benefit through (i) an enhanced awareness of climate impacts on biodiversity, (ii) increased knowledge of the role of natural ecosystems in providing valuable goods and services to humanity, and (iii) the role of science in improving the conservation and management of grassland ecosystems and in underpinning our understanding of how the landscape can function for our collective benefit.
Project beneficiaries will include the bioscience, ecology and wider scientific research community interested in sustainable and productive food production. Key stakeholders include landowners, farmers groups (e.g. NFU, SNFU, NFUW, HCC, EBLEX, QMS, Soil Association), societies (BES, BSSS), conservation bodies (Plant Life, The Grassland Trust, British Grassland Society, Wildlife Trusts) and local and national government departments (Defra; EA) and agencies (SEPA; EA, Natural England; Countryside Council for Wales, Scottish Natural Heritage) who will benefit as science supported policy develops. We will liaise with BSSS and the Global Soil Partnership to ensure our project goals are integrated into the planned activities for International Year of Soils 2015.
Other beneficiaries are commercial organisations involved in habitat restoration, in particular, horticultural businesses that supply native seed and seed mixes. These businesses stand to benefit from our research through learning (via knowledge exchange; KE) how drought, land management and soil conditions influences communities to resist and recover from the effects of climate change. These organisations also have a financial interest in being able to produce seed mixtures that are stress resistant, and that are more likely to result in habitat restoration that remains successful over the long-term.
It will be vital that our findings are communicated to non-academics and non-researchers within the plant breeding community and end-users. Engagement with these groups will be facilitated though two stakeholder workshops, and through interaction with the Cool Farm Alliance, an umbrella organisation that liaises with numerous businesses with interests in agricultural-related matters. We will also showcase our findings and portfolio of expertise through presentations to farmers groups, building on our existing network forums, public talks and online resources (e.g. You Tube).
How will they benefit from our research?
Data generated in this project will have major implications for our potential to alter soil C and N cycling through land management. A key component of the work is the integration of empirical data with predictive models: this opens up opportunities to gain rapid insight into how specific environmental and edaphic contexts may affect the ability of soils to resist, recover and adapt to perturbations such as drought. Our work will open up the possibility for input of our mechanistic framework into farm management systems, aimed at, for example, coupling enhanced/sustained yields (cf food security) with C storage potential and mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions.
Members of the general public will benefit through (i) an enhanced awareness of climate impacts on biodiversity, (ii) increased knowledge of the role of natural ecosystems in providing valuable goods and services to humanity, and (iii) the role of science in improving the conservation and management of grassland ecosystems and in underpinning our understanding of how the landscape can function for our collective benefit.
Publications
De Castro F
(2021)
Local stability properties of complex, species-rich soil food webs with functional block structure
in Ecology and Evolution
Caruso T
(2018)
Soil organic carbon dynamics matching ecological equilibrium theory.
in Ecology and evolution
White H
(2020)
Methods and approaches to advance soil macroecology
in Global Ecology and Biogeography
Caruso T
(2019)
Oribatid mites show how climate and latitudinal gradients in organic matter can drive large-scale biodiversity patterns of soil communities
in Journal of Biogeography
Van Den Hoogen J
(2019)
Soil nematode abundance and functional group composition at a global scale.
in Nature
Chomel M
(2022)
Intensive grassland management disrupts below-ground multi-trophic resource transfer in response to drought.
in Nature communications
Bardgett RD
(2020)
Soil microbial community responses to climate extremes: resistance, resilience and transitions to alternative states.
in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences
Van Den Hoogen J
(2020)
A global database of soil nematode abundance and functional group composition.
in Scientific data
Title | Belowground visions of life - paintings |
Description | 50 paintings created in the framework of an artist in residence grant funded by the Leverhulme Trust. The artist has shadowed us in the lab and painted around the theme of the importance of soil life for humans. |
Type Of Art | Artwork |
Year Produced | 2017 |
Impact | two exhibitions, the artwork has generated a project aiming to translate the content of the painiting into a Children's book |
Title | The Muckers: Belowground visions of life - book |
Description | An illustrated children book derived from the output, ideas and concepts developed during a Leverhulme Trust funded Artist in Residence grant "Belowground Visions of Life: Soil Makes Art" |
Type Of Art | Creative Writing |
Year Produced | 2018 |
Impact | The book is at the manuscript stage and is now ready to be presented to publishers and wider public. The plan is to introduce it to the primary school curriculum |
Description | The project revealed how grassland management interacts with extreme drought to affect fluxes of energy and matter in the soil food webs. This is important because the interaction between the soil food webs and plants control how ecosystem works, especially productivity of plants and emission of greenhouse gases. The project shows how the statibility of terrestrial ecosystems depend on the soil food web. |
Exploitation Route | The outcome of the project suggest best grassland management strategies, advocating for non intensive approaches where soil can retain good level of organic matter and soil food web structure. |
Sectors | Agriculture Food and Drink Environment |
URL | https://soilsecurity.org/controls-on-the-stability-of-soils/ |
Description | So far, we have used material from the project to illustrate soil biodiversity and its roles in ecosystem. We have contributed to a number of events including the major NERC initiative UnEarthed (http://unearthed.nerc.ac.uk/), which took place on 17-19 Nov 2017 at Dynamic Earth (Edinburgh) and was broadcasted by the BBC, and the Royal Society summer science exhibition last July 2018 in London. We have also contributed to the Balmoral Show in Northern Ireland, which is the largest agricultural fair. |
First Year Of Impact | 2017 |
Sector | Education,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
Impact Types | Cultural |
Title | archived samples for future molecular analyses |
Description | Samples from a large manipulative field experiments have been archived at -80 C for future high throughput sequencing of microbial and animal DNA |
Type Of Material | Biological samples |
Provided To Others? | No |
Impact | This is an unprecedented experiment that can lead to a deep understanding of the dynamic of biological communities under land use management and extreme climatic event (e.g., drought and flood) |
Title | A glasshouse experiment with soil mesocosms subjected to combinations of flood and drought perturbation |
Description | An experiment in the field investigating the interactions between mechanical disturbance and N fertilization |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2017 |
Provided To Others? | No |
Impact | Data collection completed, data analysis completed. Data and specimens available for further analysis |
Title | Drought & Flood experiment on intact grassland cores |
Description | An experiment with soil mesocosms subjected to combinations of flood and drought perturbation |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2016 |
Provided To Others? | No |
Impact | This experiment is returning results that for the first time show how the effect of one extreme climatic perturbation (e.g., drought) may depend on the effects of a previous extreme climatic event of a different nature (e.g., flood vs. drought). Paper is expected to be ready for submission by the end of 2017 |
Title | Glasshouse experiment |
Description | Data from a glasshouse experiment conducted on soil intact cores. The cores were extracted from field plots that have already received two experimental treatments: a mechanical perturbation and N fertilization. The experiment investigates the response of soil biota and functions to drought and flood and in relation to the potential legacy left from the field treatments. |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2017 |
Provided To Others? | No |
Impact | Data collection now completed, data analysis almost completed. There is evidence of interactions between treatments for arthropods but not for nematodes. The specimens have been archived and can be used for further studies (for example, increasing taxonomic resolution of analysis). |
Title | Large scale drought experiment |
Description | A database consisting of more than 1000 data points for the distribution of nematode functional groups and arthropod functional groups. These data describe the response of soil animal food webs to drought, land use, and how spatial variability in soil food webs affect this response. The data allows to estimate the recovery of soil animal food webs from the perturbation caused by drought. The data are also informing a large food web model analysis to estimate energy fluxes, stability and resilience of food web |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2018 |
Provided To Others? | No |
Impact | This unique database offers an unprecedented opportunity to model soil food webs dynamics emerging from a manipulative experiment that simulates extreme drought event across Great Britain (Scotland, Yorkshire Dale, Devon), grassland management (intensive vs. extensive), and a number of location (spatial variations at multiple scales). |
Title | Soil Food web model |
Description | A soil food web model programmed in MatLab to analyse results from the Flood and Drought experiment currently in progress |
Type Of Material | Computer model/algorithm |
Year Produced | 2018 |
Provided To Others? | No |
Impact | The model offers a dynamical understanding of the responses of soil food web to impacts such as flood and drought and, most important, the combinations of these perturbations. The model will be published soon |
Description | Resistance to perturbation in agricultural land: Can we identify and fingerprint functional soil conditions across scales |
Organisation | UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | I will offer material and data collected in the framework of Controls on the stability of soils, and will contribute to publication output |
Collaborator Contribution | Partners will offer access to data and opportunity to develop data analysis and models that will lead to co-author publications |
Impact | collaboration has just started |
Start Year | 2017 |
Description | Belowground Vision of Life: Soil makes Art |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | An exhibition of artwork conducted in the framework of an artist in residence grant funded by the Leverhulme Trust. The artist has shadowed us in the lab, and created a number of artworks themed around the importance of soil life for humans. The artwork is to be exhibited on April the 1st at the Ulster Museum of Belfast |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | http://nmni.com/um/What-s-on/Events/Below-Ground-Visions-of-Life--Soil-makes-Art |
Description | Canned Ecology |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | This is a program of outreach funded by NERC for the NERC 50th anniversary. We have had two event: an open day at Stormont, where the Northern Ireland parliament is; Slieve Gullion, a natural park for families. We have a trailer with mobile touch tank and mobile insect viewers for members of the public to get a closer look at the smaller things that live in soil and aquatic habitats. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
Description | Northern Ireland Balmoral Show |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | The largerst agricultural fair in Northern Ireland, demonstrating soil biodiversity with microscopes, cameras, and artworks themed around soil. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Outreach: Northern Ireland Balmoral Show |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | The largerst agricultural fair in Northern Ireland, we displayed an exhibition on soil biodiverisity and informed the general public about the impact of our research project. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | UnEarthed - Explore the world at your feet - NERC |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | An outreach event at the Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh, informing on all NERC research themed around dynamic lithosphere processes, including belowground organisms. We presented an exhibition from the Soil Security Programme (soil biodiverisity and the importance of soil in our lives). |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | http://unearthed.nerc.ac.uk/ |