Szczygiel, H.A., Butler, O.M. and Nottingham, A.T. orcid.org/0000-0001-9421-8972 (2024) Decline in diversity of tropical soil fauna under experimental warming. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 291 (2036). 20242193. ISSN 0962-8452
Abstract
Climate change is exacerbating a global decline in biodiversity. Numerous observational studies link rising temperatures to declining biological abundance, richness and diversity in terrestrial ecosystems, yet few studies have considered the highly diverse and functionally significant communities of tropical forest soil and leaf litter fauna. Here, we report major declines in the order-level richness and diversity of soil and leaf litter fauna following three years of experimental whole-profile soil warming in a tropical forest. These declines were greatest during the dry season, suggesting that warming effects could be exacerbated by drought. Contrary to findings from higher latitudes, total faunal abundance increased under warming, and these effects were paralleled by major shifts in community composition. These responses were driven by increased dominance of a relatively small number of thermophilic taxa, and of oribatid mites in particular. Our study provides direct experimental evidence that warming causes diversity declines and compositional shifts for tropical forest soil and leaf litter fauna, a result with potential consequences for soil functions and biogeochemical cycles, and that highlights the vulnerability of tropical biodiversity to climate change.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2024 The Author(s). Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. |
Keywords: | tropical, soil, biodiversity, climate change,warming, insect decline |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Geography (Leeds) > Ecology & Global Change (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number NERC (Natural Environment Research Council) NE/T012226/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 05 Nov 2024 09:42 |
Last Modified: | 16 Dec 2024 16:46 |
Published Version: | https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsp... |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | The Royal Society |
Identification Number: | 10.1098/rspb.2024.2193 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:219241 |