Objective
To define the structure of decomposer communities in relation to decomposition in coniferous and deciduous forests along two major European transects, covering a wide range of climatic conditions, quality of organic matter, deposition and management practices.
To understand and predict the response of the soil community (microorganisms, nematodes, enchytraeids, microarthropods, macrofauna) to global climate change by studying forested field plots and laboratory systems with environmentally controlled conditions (elevated/non-elevated temperatures, dry/normal/moist conditions).
To link biodiversity in soil to ecosystem function by (i) identifying functional types and trophic connectivity (ii) investigating functional equivalent species occupying the same niche, (iii) comparing taxonomic diversity of the soil microflora to biochemical diversity and (iv) manipulating the community structure of decomposer invertebrates.
To quantify the functional implications of diversity change (i) by accompanying the investigations listed above with measurements on decomposition, C mineralisation, N availability and microbial C and N pools, and (ii) by making use of the functional data which are already available or which will be provided by ongoing research projects carried out at same sites.
Two central hypotheses will be tested: (i) climate induced perturbation selects for species with reduced ability
to carry out key functions; (ii) redundancy is needed to maintain key functions in perturbated environments. The
measurements include both diversity related parameters (micro-, meso-, macrofauna; taxonomic and biochemical
methods for microbial diversity) and functional parameters.
The project will utilise the natural environmental variation by carrying out studies along 2 European transects,
covering major gradients of temperature, moisture, deposition and management practices. By choosing sites,
which have been and are still intensely used for studies on ecosystem function, GLOBIS aims at forming
'diversity links' to as well as between interdisciplinary European research projects (VAMOS, CORE, NIPHYS).
This strategy will be combined with both field experiments, where relevant environmental conditions are
controlled, and manipulation experiments in the laboratory to evaluate the importance of different factors. The
research activities of GLOBIS are broken down into 3 work packages, which are further subdivided into tasks:
WP 1 (Transect studies):
The continental gradient approach provides essential data on the correlation between environmental conditions
and diversity/function relationships. This experimental strategy incorporates a new decomposition experiment
with litter-bags in climatically different ecosystems to allow temporal and spatial monitoring of soil biota as
decomposition of selected organic matter substrates proceeds. The litterbag experiment will be complemented
by an intense study on the functional implications of microbial diversity in soil and its relation to climate,
resource input and management. These studies are carried out by isolation techniques (taxonomic approach) and
fatty acid analyses (biochemical approach).
WP 2 (Environmentally controlled conditions):
Field experiments with environmentally controlled conditions (elevated temperature elevated and reduced
moisture) aim at understanding and predicting the response of the belowground community to climate change.
The studies will be carried out at the extreme edges of the GLOBIS transects (three sites in Sweden, one site
in Greece) to cover most aspects of the environmental gradient.
WP 3 'Fine tuning' will be possible by testing hypotheses on the role of selected functional groups, functional
diversity and trophic connectivity in manipulation experiments. A set of experiments with various experimentally
designed communities will be established. They include both experiments with altered diversity of functional
groups and altered diversity within functional groups.
The benefit of GLOBIS will be a better understanding and predicting of the way in which biological diversity
in soil regulates ecosystem function and how this will be altered under global change.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences biological sciences biochemistry biomolecules lipids
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences atmospheric sciences climatology climatic changes
- social sciences economics and business business and management
- natural sciences biological sciences microbiology
- natural sciences biological sciences zoology invertebrate zoology
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Coordinator
35390 GIESSEN
Germany
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.