IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v12y2021i1d10.1038_s41467-021-25675-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Ecological memory of recurrent drought modifies soil processes via changes in soil microbial community

Author

Listed:
  • Alberto Canarini

    (University of Vienna)

  • Hannes Schmidt

    (University of Vienna)

  • Lucia Fuchslueger

    (University of Vienna)

  • Victoria Martin

    (University of Vienna)

  • Craig W. Herbold

    (University of Vienna)

  • David Zezula

    (University of Vienna)

  • Philipp Gündler

    (University of Vienna)

  • Roland Hasibeder

    (University of Innsbruck)

  • Marina Jecmenica

    (University of Vienna)

  • Michael Bahn

    (University of Innsbruck)

  • Andreas Richter

    (University of Vienna)

Abstract

Climate change is altering the frequency and severity of drought events. Recent evidence indicates that drought may produce legacy effects on soil microbial communities. However, it is unclear whether precedent drought events lead to ecological memory formation, i.e., the capacity of past events to influence current ecosystem response trajectories. Here, we utilize a long-term field experiment in a mountain grassland in central Austria with an experimental layout comparing 10 years of recurrent drought events to a single drought event and ambient conditions. We show that recurrent droughts increase the dissimilarity of microbial communities compared to control and single drought events, and enhance soil multifunctionality during drought (calculated via measurements of potential enzymatic activities, soil nutrients, microbial biomass stoichiometry and belowground net primary productivity). Our results indicate that soil microbial community composition changes in concert with its functioning, with consequences for soil processes. The formation of ecological memory in soil under recurrent drought may enhance the resilience of ecosystem functioning against future drought events.

Suggested Citation

  • Alberto Canarini & Hannes Schmidt & Lucia Fuchslueger & Victoria Martin & Craig W. Herbold & David Zezula & Philipp Gündler & Roland Hasibeder & Marina Jecmenica & Michael Bahn & Andreas Richter, 2021. "Ecological memory of recurrent drought modifies soil processes via changes in soil microbial community," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-14, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-25675-4
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-25675-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-25675-4
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-021-25675-4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sabine Reinsch & David A. Robinson & Maud A. J. van Soest & Aidan M. Keith & Simon Parry & Andrew M. Tye, 2024. "Temperate Soils Exposed to Drought—Key Processes, Impacts, Indicators, and Unknowns," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-32, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-25675-4. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.