Global change in aboveground-subterranean multitrophic grassland communities
Project overview
Anthropogenic environmental changes affect ecological communities and associated ecosystem functions and services. Temperate grasslands harbour a high diversity of invertebrates that control numerous ecosystem processes and services. Land-use intensity and climate change affect these grassland ecosystems, and while the separate effects of these stressors are comparatively well studied, their interactions have been much less so far.
Furthermore, research on biodiversity loss often focusses on the decline in biomass and species numbers, ignoring a key aspect: the change in ecological interactions. This knowledge gap is problematic because interactions control key ecosystem processes such as predation, herbivory and the decomposition of organic material. Networks of feeding interactions, so-called food webs, link the structure of ecological communities to their function and thus create a mechanistic link between global change, ecological communities and ecosystem multifunctionality.
Aims and research questions
The project investigates how ecological interactions and food webs change under the influence of multiple interacting stressors. The focus is on the joint influence of land-use intensity and climate change on above- and belowground feeding interactions and on the multifunctionality of temperate grassland ecosystems.
A particular focus is on how changes in feeding interactions due to global change mechanistically affect ecosystem processes and the ability of an ecosystem to perform multiple functions simultaneously.
Above and below ground communities
Much more is known about the impact of global change on aboveground communities than on their belowground counterparts. However, belowground communities are equally central to the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems. It is therefore necessary to study above- and belowground communities together and to understand their interdependence.
The project follows exactly this approach and considers above- and belowground food webs not separately, but as interconnected components of ecological communities.
Approach and methods
The Global Change Experimental Facility (GCEF) in Bad Lauchstädt is being used to address these questions. The project combines novel approaches for recording feeding interactions and dependence on basal resources with innovative methods for the quantitative recording of energy flows through food webs.
In this way, the separate and interactive effects of land use and climate change can be deciphered and their effects on ecological interactions, ecosystem processes and multifunctionality can be recorded - on and below ground. The combination of a large-scale field experiment with novel molecular and quantitative methods enables a much deeper understanding of how global change affects temperate grasslands.
Relevance
The project makes an important contribution to the mechanistic understanding of the effects of global change on temperate grassland ecosystems. It combines the study of ecological communities with the analysis of their interactions and functions and thus creates a basis for the future management and protection of these ecosystems.
Project information
| PI: | Prof. Dr Malte Jochum |
| Subject: | Multiple stressors, Above-belowground |
| Study site: | Global Change Experimental Facility (GCEF), Bad Lauchstädt |
| Funding: | DFG Individual research grant |
| Duration: | 2024-2027 |
| Collaborators: | Dr Melanie Pollierer, Vera Zizka, Dr Martin Schädler, Prof. Dr Nico Eisenhauer |
| Staff: | Hendrik Mohr (PhD candidate), multiple student helpers |
| Links: | DFG Gepris UFZ GCEF |
