Journal
FEMS MICROBIOLOGY ECOLOGY
Volume 81, Issue 2, Pages 419-426Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1111/j.1574-6941.2012.01364.x
Keywords
climate change; soil fauna; fungal community; decomposition; soil biodiversity; ecosystem function
Categories
Funding
- Natural Environment Research Council [NE/G523420/1]
- Cardiff University
- NERC [NE/G523420/1] Funding Source: UKRI
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Saprotrophic fungal community composition, determined by the outcomes of competitive mycelial interactions, represents a key determinant of woodland carbon and nutrient cycling. Atmospheric warming is predicted to drive changes in fungal community composition. Grazing by invertebrates can also exert selective pressures on fungal communities and alter the outcome of competitive fungal interactions; their potential to do so is determined by grazing intensity. Temperature regulates the abundance of soil collembola, but it remains unclear whether this will alter the top-down determination of fungal community composition. We use soil microcosms to explore the direct (via effects on interacting fungi) and indirect (by influencing top-down grazing pressures) effects of a 3 similar to degrees C temperature increase on the outcomes of competitive interactions between cord-forming basidiomycete fungi. By differentially affecting the fungal growth rates, warming reversed the outcomes of specific competitive interactions. Collembola populations also increased at elevated temperature, and these larger, more active, populations exerted stronger grazing pressures. Consequently, grazing mitigated the effects of temperature on these interactions, restoring fungal communities to those recorded at ambient temperature. The interactive effects of biotic and abiotic factors are a key in determining the functional and ecological responses of microbial communities to climate change.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available