Meta-analysis reveals that the effects of precipitation change on soil and litter fauna in forests depend on body size

Philip A. Martin*, Leonora Fisher, Leticia Pérez-Izquierdo, Charlotte Biryol, Bertrand Guenet, Sebastiaan Luyssaert, Stefano Manzoni, Claire Menival, Mathieu Santonja, Rebecca Spake, Jan C. Axmacher, Jorge Curiel Yuste

*Corresponding author for this work

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Abstract

Anthropogenic climate change is altering precipitation regimes at a global scale. While precipitation changes have been linked to changes in the abundance and diversity of soil and litter invertebrate fauna in forests, general trends have remained elusive due to mixed results from primary studies. We used a meta-analysis based on 430 comparisons from 38 primary studies to address associated knowledge gaps, (i) quantifying impacts of precipitation change on forest soil and litter fauna abundance and diversity, (ii) exploring reasons for variation in impacts and (iii) examining biases affecting the realism and accuracy of experimental studies. Precipitation reductions led to a decrease of 39% in soil and litter fauna abundance, with a 35% increase in abundance under precipitation increases, while diversity impacts were smaller. A statistical model containing an interaction between body size and the magnitude of precipitation change showed that mesofauna (e.g. mites, collembola) responded most to changes in precipitation. Changes in taxonomic richness were related solely to the magnitude of precipitation change. Our results suggest that body size is related to the ability of a taxon to survive under drought conditions, or to benefit from high precipitation. We also found that most experiments manipulated precipitation in a way that aligns better with predicted extreme climatic events than with predicted average annual changes in precipitation and that the experimental plots used in experiments were likely too small to accurately capture changes for mobile taxa. The relationship between body size and response to precipitation found here has far-reaching implications for our ability to predict future responses of soil biodiversity to climate change and will help to produce more realistic mechanistic soil models which aim to simulate the responses of soils to global change.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere17305
Pages (from-to)1-17
Number of pages17
JournalGlobal Change Biology
Volume30
Issue number5
Early online date7 May 2024
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - May 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Funding

Philip Martin, Leticia P\u00E9rez-Izquierdo, Charlotte Biryol, Bertrand Guenet, Sebastiaan Luyssaert, Stefano Manzoni, Claire Menival, Mathieu Santonja and Jorge Curiel Yuste were funded by the grant Holistic management practices, modelling and monitoring for European forest soils\u2014HoliSoils (EU Horizon 2020 grant agreement no. 101000289). JCY was also funded by the coordinated project ATLANTIS (PID2020-113244GB-C21), the Basque Government through the BERC 2022-2025 programme, and the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through the BC3 Mar\u00EDa de Maeztu excellence accreditation (MDM-2017-0714). We would also like to thank two anonymous referees for help in improving this article. Philip Martin, Leticia P\u00E9rez\u2010Izquierdo, Charlotte Biryol, Bertrand Guenet, Sebastiaan Luyssaert, Stefano Manzoni, Claire Menival, Mathieu Santonja and Jorge Curiel Yuste were funded by the grant Holistic management practices, modelling and monitoring for European forest soils\u2014HoliSoils (EU Horizon 2020 grant agreement no. 101000289). JCY was also funded by the coordinated project ATLANTIS (PID2020\u2010113244GB\u2010C21), the Basque Government through the BERC 2022\u20102025 programme, and the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through the BC3 Mar\u00EDa de Maeztu excellence accreditation (MDM\u20102017\u20100714). We would also like to thank two anonymous referees for help in improving this article.

FundersFunder number
Eusko Jaurlaritza
Horizon 2020101000289, PID2020‐113244GB‐C21
Horizon 2020
BERC2022‐2025
Ministerio de Ciencia e InnovaciónMDM‐2017‐0714
Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación

    Keywords

    • climate change
    • drought
    • evidence synthesis
    • meta-analysis
    • precipitation change
    • soil fauna

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