Biodiversity Exploratories - Diversity of Enchytraeidae and their Functions (BE-DEF)

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Miklós Bálint; Dr. Nicole Scheunemann
• Subject Area: Ecology and Biodiversity of Animals and Ecosystems, Organismic Interactions
• Term: since 2026
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 569058955

Soils provide essential ecosystem services (ESS) that are driven by a great diversity of soil organisms. Conserving biodiversity of soil fauna is therefore important for maintaining these services, but the consequences of biodiversity loss caused by land use intensity and climate change on soil ESS is little understood. Studies from the Biodiversity Exploratories show that soil organisms respond to different environmental drivers than aboveground organisms. This makes predicting belowground biodiversity loss challenging, especially since its impact on ecosystem functions remains unclear, as some species exert a stronger influence on ecological processes than others. This project aims to gain a mechanistic understanding on how land use intensity affects soil-related ESS by examining the relationship between species diversity and functional diversity. It focuses on Enchytraeidae (Annelida, Clitellata), a taxon that influences soil structure, humus formation, and decomposition, and which shows species-specific responses to abiotic, biotic, and anthropogenic factors. Study sites will focus on grasslands as they typically host higher Enchytraeidae diversity than forests. Changes in species and trait diversity across space and time will be assessed by linking Enchytraeidae species identities and community composition with species-specific functional traits to evaluate shifts in soil fauna-mediated ESS. Functional traits will be analyzed from measured and collected morphological, life history, and proteomic data. Additionally, compound-specific stable isotopes of essential amino acids (CSIA) will be examined in collaboration with the LitterLinksII project to investigate trophic flexibility of the most common species across land use types and regions. Spatial species diversity will be assessed via metabarcoding of eDNA from grassland EPs and within a 75 m radius. Temporal diversity of enchytraeid communities will be examined through eDNA metabarcoding of grassland EPs collected from 2017 to 2026. The eDNA will be provided by Core Project 8 and BelowSPACE, all enchytraeid data will be shared with BelowSPACE. Environmental variables at multiple spatial scales will be provided by BelowSPACE, too. The project consists of three work packages (WPs), in which two PhD students will create species and trait lists (WP1), analyze the impact of land use intensity on genetic diversity, species richness, and trait diversity (WP2), and investigate spatial and temporal changes of traits, Enchytraeidae communities and soil fauna-mediated ESS in the light of land use intensity (WP3). By integrating genetic, species, and trait diversity at multiple spatial and at temporal scales, this project will enhance our understanding of biodiversity-function relationships in soil ecosystems, and allow to explore the degree of functional redundancy among Enchytraeidae species, which potentially buffers soil ESS against biodiversity loss.

• DFG Programme: Infrastructure Priority Programmes
• Subproject of: SPP 1374: Biodiversity Exploratories