New findings indicate changes in soil biodiversity are driven by changes in plant cover and soil acidification during ecosystem development.

       A Virginia Tech professor was part of an international team of researchers that discovered new advances about the major ecological patterns driving the changes in soil biodiversity that occur over millions of years.

       The study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences provides critical insights on the factors that control changes in the biodiversity of soil bacteria, fungi, protists, and invertebrates over many millennia. The findings indicate that these changes in soil biodiversity are driven by changes in plant cover and soil acidification during ecosystem development.

       “This research provides a new framework for understanding soil and ecosystem biodiversity, which is fundamental to maintaining our global biosphere and managing for future global change” said Mark A. Williams, an associate professor in the School of Plant and Environmental Sciences in the Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

       Soil microbes and animals, from tiny soil bacteria to earthworms, are unsung heroes in our environment, providing hundreds of billions of dollars in ecosystem services. These organisms are critical in maintaining the global biosphere and human existence. As a thought experiment during classes, Williams often asks his students what would happen if all of these diverse organisms were to become extinct. "Humans would die, too”, is the typical answer.

       “We sought to understand how soil biodiversity changes over millions of years, and whether ecological patterns would help explain aspects of ecosystem and global ecology,” Williams said.

       Two major ecological patterns explain the changes in soil biodiversity from centuries to many millennia.

       In less productive ecosystems, increases in soil biodiversity followed increases in plant cover, which provide food for soil microbes and animals. In more productive ecosystems, however, where resource availability is more abundant, acidification during soil development was often associated which declines in soil biodiversity. Interestingly, these patterns, which had not yet been observed, are different from those reported for other communities, such as plants and large fauna.

Source: www.sciencedaily.com