Linking range-expansion of plants with trophic downgrading in the soil
Final Report Abstract
Anthropogenic climate change continues to stress biodiversity and ecosystems with several undesired consequences for human well-being. Moreover, the increasing frequency and magnitude of extreme climatic events pose unprecedented abiotic stress to organisms across the biosphere. However, we still know little how extreme climatic events affect soil organisms, and their implications for ecosystem functioning. During my research fellowship stay at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO), I explored how extreme climatic events affect the biotic interactions in the soil to improve our understanding of ecological responses in a changing world. Towards this end, I performed three experiments with the following main questions: 1) how does periodic heat waves affect the performance of a native and a related range-expanding plant in soils with reduced and intact predatory nematodes, 2) how rhizosphere predators and prey respond and recover to an extreme heat event, and 3) how extreme drought events affect the biotic resistance of native plant communities to resist invasion of different kinds of colonizing plants? The first experiment was proposed in my DFG research proposal, whereas the other two experiments were additions to my original research plan. All three experiments (two published, and one in preparation) clearly indicate strong effects of extreme climatic events on biotic responses of soil organisms and plants, and potentially alter those relationships. More specifically, my results suggest shifts in biotic interactions (e.g. predator-prey, plant-soil interactions) in response to extreme climatic events, which could have implications for shifts in biodiversity and thereby ecosystem functioning typically associated with the soil. I believe that the findings of these three experiments will appeal a broad readership of climate change ecology and encourage both fundamental and applied research specifically with a focus on soil organisms.
Publications
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(2019) Microbial invasions in terrestrial ecosystems. Nature Reviews Microbiology, 17: 621-631
Thakur, MP, van der Putten, WH, Cobben, M, Kleunen, M, Geisen, S
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(2019) Trophic regulations of the soil microbiome. Trends in Microbiology, 27: 771–780
Thakur, MP, and Geisen, S
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(2020) Resilience of rhizosphere microbial predators and their prey communities after an extreme heat event. Functional Ecology
Thakur, MP, van der Putten, WH, Apon, F, Angelini, E, Branko, V, Geisen, S
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(2020) Soil predator loss alters aboveground stoichiometry in a native but not in a related range-expanding plant when exposed to periodic heat waves. Soil Biology & Biochemistry, 150: 107999
Quist, C, van der Putten, WH, Thakur, MP
