TreeDì_P8G Soil fauna

P8G: Functional diversity of soil microbial and nematode communities

The functional dissimilarity of species is hypothesised to determine the positive relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning.However, functional dissimilarity effects might be context-dependentand strongest in complex environments (e.g. high resource complexity), where dissimilar species are able to occupy different niches.Thus, studying the effects of functional dissimilarity of interacting trees in neighbourhoods of different diversity on the functional diversity and biomass of soil organisms may provide a generalisable framework to link biodiversity to ecosystem functions across above-belowground ecosystem compartments. Objectives: To analyse if dissimilarity of TSPs increases functional diversity of soil microorganisms and soil nematodes To analyse if more complex environments (diversity of the local neighbourhood) steepen this slope due to a higher diversity of organic inputs and microhabitats, which is expected to increase the functional diversity of soil microorganisms and soil nematodes To analyse if increased functional diversity of soil organisms results in increased biomass of microorganisms and nematodes (consumer biomass)

2019-12-17

2019-12-17