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Soil food web structure and function is primarily determined by the major basal resources, which are living plant tissue, root exudates and dead organic matter. A field experiment was performed to disentangle the interlinkage of the root-and detritus-based soil food chains. An arable site was cropped either with maize, amended with maize shoot litter or remained bare soil, representing food webs depending on roots, aboveground litter and soil organic matter as predominant resource, respectively. The soil micro-food web, i.e. microorganisms and nematodes, was investigated in two successive years along a depth transect. The community composition of nematodes was used as model to determine the changes in the rhizosphere, detritusphere and bulk soil food web. In the first growing season the impact of treatments on the soil micro-food web was minor. In the second year plant-feeding nematodes increased under maize, whereas after harvest the Channel Index assigned promotion of the detritivore food chain, reflecting decomposition of root residues. The amendment with litter did not foster microorganisms, instead biomass of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria as well as that of fungi declined in the rooted zone. Likely higher grazing pressure by nematodes reduced microbial standing crop as bacterial and fungal feeders increased. However, populations at higher trophic levels were not promoted, indicating limited flux of litter resources along the food chain. After two years of bare soil microbial biomass and nematode density remained stable, pointing to soil organic matter-based resources that allow bridging periods with deprivation. Nematode communities were dominated by opportunistic taxa that are competitive at moderate resource supply. In sum, removal of plants from the system had less severe effects than expected, suggesting considerable food web resilience to the disruption of both the root and detrital carbon channel, pointing to a legacy of organic matter resources in arable soils. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Human activity has induced a multitude of global changes that are likely to affect the functioning of ecosystems. Although these changes act in concert, studies on interactive effects are scarce. Here, we conducted a laboratory microcosm experiment to explore the impacts of temperature (9, 12 and 15°C), changes in soil humidity (moist, dry) and plant diversity (1, 4, 16 species) on soil microbial activity and litter decomposition. We found that changes in litter decomposition did not mirror impacts on microbial measures indicating that the duration of the experiment (22 weeks) may not have been sufficient to determine the full magnitude of global change effects. However and notably, changes in temperature, humidity and plant litter diversity/composition affected in a non-additive way the microbial parameters investigated. For instance, microbial metabolic efficiency increased with plant diversity in the high moisture treatment but remained unaffected in low moisture treatment suggesting that climate changes may mask beneficial effects of biodiversity on ecosystem functioning. Moreover, litter decomposition was unaffected by plant litter diversity/composition but increased with increasing temperature in the high moisture treatment, and decreased with increasing temperature in the low moisture treatment. We conclude that it is inevitable to perform complex experiments considering multiple global change agents in order to realistically predict future changes in ecosystem functioning. Non-additive interactions highlight the context-dependency of impacts of single global change agents. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]