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KLIMAFORSK-Stort program klima

FUNDER - Direct and indirect climate impacts on the biodiversity and Functioning of the UNDERground ecosystem

Alternative title: Direkte og indirekte effekter av klima på biodiversitet og økologisk Funksjon i det UNDERjordiske økosystemet

Awarded: NOK 12.1 mill.

Project Manager:

Project Number:

315249

Application Type:

Project Period:

2021 - 2026

Funding received from:

Partner countries:

Climate change alters the biodiversity and ecological interactions among plants, animals, and microorganisms in natural ecosystems. These impacts are apparent as changes in the fauna and vegetation above ground, but also affect the less-studied plant-soil food web of the underground. Down here, plants and animals act and interact with each other in ways that impact the basic functions that determine the important ecosystem processes that regulate carbon storage and cycling. Consequently, any changes in the plant-soil food web may significantly alter feedbacks from natural ecosystems to the climate system. FUNDER assesses and disentangles direct and indirect effects of climate, mediated through biotic interactions, on the diversity and whole-ecosystem functioning of the plant-soil food web. To achieve this, we conduct experiments across broad-scale temperature and precipitation gradients in Norway, and measure plants, soil animals, and microorganisms. FUNDER builds on an existing field experiment, where combinations of forbs, graminoids and bryophytes are removed to understand their interactions and how they affect organisms in the soil. The experiment is replicated across twelve sites spanning broad-scale climate gradients in temperature and precipitation from the lowlands to the alpine, and from the wet west coast to the drier inlands in southern Norway to explore context-dependencies in these responses. We destructively harvested these experiments in 2022, collecting plants above and below the ground, soil invertebrates and microorganisms, and we measured decomposition of dead plant material, nutrients in the soil, functional traits of leaves, roots, and soil animals, and microclimate. These data give rich opportunities to explore how climate and vegetation characteristics regulate biodiversity and ecosystem processes. We presented preliminary findings from many of these studies at conferences in 2023, and are now working on scientific publications. An interesting and unexpected finding is related to plant regulation of microclimate. We found that bryophytes reduced growing season soil temperature, whereas graminoids and forbs did not (0.5ºC compared to 0ºC), and with a stronger effect in colder climates, at higher elevations, and on days with high solar radiation. Bryophyte biomass further reduced the number of soil freezing days at boreal and sub-alpine sites. Finally, soils dried faster under graminoids, at drier sites. Our findings highlight that plant functional groups plays a key role in regulating soil microclimate in alpine grasslands across seasons. The surprisingly strong effect of bryophytes on soil temperature points to their importance in the plant community for a variety of ecosystem functions, some of which may be vulnerable to future warming of biomass of bryophytes is reduced. The results of FUNDER will allow us to gain a holistic understanding of ecosystem responses to climate change, including changes that may lead to disruption of biotic interactions and changes in climate feedbacks.

Climate change alters plant and soil communities, as well as processes and interactions in the plant-soil food web. These changes pose threats to biodiversity and key ecosystem functions such as productivity and carbon and nutrient cycling. To predict how biodiversity and ecosystem functioning will respond to future climatic changes, and how these changes will feed back to the climate system, profound knowledge of climate impacts on underlying ecological responses, processes, mechanisms, and interactions in the plant-soil food web is needed. FUNDER will assess and disentangle the direct effects of climate from the indirect effects, mediated through biotic interactions, on the diversity and whole-ecosystem functioning of the plant-soil food web. To achieve this, we use a powerful macroecological experimental approach to quantify the impacts of vegetation diversity on interactions and ecosystem functioning across factorial broad-scale temperature and precipitation gradients. This will allow us to gain a holistic understanding of ecosystem responses to climate change, including non-additive effects, context-dependencies across landscapes, compensatory effects and climate mismatches that may lead to disruption of biotic interactions. Towards this end, FUNDER brings together an optimal team of researchers with complementary skills and expertise from five world-class research institutions in Norway and abroad to develop new approaches in global change, ecosystem, conservation ecology and earth system modelling with important applications and benefits for both basic science and applied climate change research. The research is made possible, and provides added value, through exploiting an existing Norwegian experimental infrastructure. The project leadership and partners have excellent track records in relevant fields, and FUNDER will significantly strengthen the research cluster and provide career opportunities for early-career researchers.

Publications from Cristin

No publications found

Funding scheme:

KLIMAFORSK-Stort program klima