Trait‐based responses of soil nematode communities to land use and climate change

Summary

This field study examined how soil nematode trait distributions respond to land use and projected climate change, moving beyond simple taxonomic diversity to investigate trait assembly mechanisms. The research found that future climate conditions restrict small-bodied nematodes and narrow trait distributions in croplands whilst promoting more even distributions in grasslands, with land-use-dependent effects on body shape trade-offs at lower trophic levels and environmental filtering effects at higher trophic levels. The findings suggest that climate impacts on nematode communities operate through soil moisture and pore structure constraints, with stronger bottom-up regulation in croplands and top-down regulation in grasslands.

UK applicability

These findings are relevant to UK agriculture, which comprises both intensive arable and extensive grassland systems. The trait-based framework could inform UK soil health monitoring and help predict how climate warming and changing precipitation patterns will alter soil food web functioning and nutrient cycling services in different farming systems.

Key measures

Nematode body size, length and diameter; trait distribution shape parameters (mean, upper and lower trait limits, skewness, kurtosis); trophic-level composition (bacterivores, fungivores, omnivores, carnivores); soil moisture; soil pore structure (critical pore diameters)

Outcomes reported

The study measured trait distributions (body size, length, diameter) of soil nematode communities across trophic levels under ambient and future climate scenarios in conventional croplands versus extensively-managed grasslands. It assessed how future climate conditions (+0.6°C, −20% summer precipitation, +10% spring/autumn precipitation) and land use shape nematode community trait assembly and body morphology.

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