FUNDER - Direct and indirect climate impacts on the biodiversity and Functioning of the UNDERground ecosystem

Informations

Funding country

Norway

Acronym

-

URL

-

Start date

1/1/2021

End date

12/31/2025

Budget

1,490,637 EUR

Fundings

Abstract

Climate change alters the biodiversity of plants, animals, and microorganisms. These impacts are apparent as changes in the fauna and vegetation above ground, and also in the less-studied plant-soil food web of the underground. Down here, plants and animals act and interact with each other in ways that impact the basic functions that determine the important ecosystem processes that regulate carbon storage and cycling. Consequently, any changes in the plant-soil food web may significantly alter feedbacks from natural ecosystems to the climate system. FUNDER assesses and disentangle direct and indirect effects of climate, mediated through biotic interactions, on the diversity and whole-ecosystem functioning of the plant-soil food web. To achieve this, we conduct experiments across broad-scale temperature and precipitation gradients in Norway, and measure plants, soil animals, and microorganisms. FUNDER builds on an existing field experiment, where combinations of forbs, graminoids and bryophytes are removed to understand their interactions and how they affect organisms in the soil. The experiment is replicated across twelve sites spanning broad-scale climate gratident sin temperature and precipitation from the lowlands to the alpine and from the wet west coas tot he drier inlends in Southern Norway. FUNDER has collected plants above and below the ground, soils, and soil organisms, and measured decomposition of dead plant material, the nutrients in the soil, and functional traits of leaves, roots, and soil animals. The results of FUNDER will allow us to gain a holistic understanding of ecosystem responses to climate change, including changes that may lead to disruption of biotic interactions and changes in climate feedbacks.