Szczygieł Hubert A, Butler Orpheus M, Nottingham Andrew T
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panamá Apartado Postal 0843-03092, República de Panamá.
Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith University, Nathan, Queensland 4111, Australia.
Proc Biol Sci. 2024 Dec;291(2036):20242193. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2024.2193. Epub 2024 Dec 11.
Climate change is exacerbating a global decline in biodiversity. Numerous observational studies link rising temperatures to declining biological abundance, richness and diversity in terrestrial ecosystems, yet few studies have considered the highly diverse and functionally significant communities of tropical forest soil and leaf litter fauna. Here, we report major declines in the order-level richness and diversity of soil and leaf litter fauna following three years of experimental whole-profile soil warming in a tropical forest. These declines were greatest during the dry season, suggesting that warming effects could be exacerbated by drought. Contrary to findings from higher latitudes, total faunal abundance increased under warming, and these effects were paralleled by major shifts in community composition. These responses were driven by increased dominance of a relatively small number of thermophilic taxa, and of oribatid mites in particular. Our study provides direct experimental evidence that warming causes diversity declines and compositional shifts for tropical forest soil and leaf litter fauna, a result with potential consequences for soil functions and biogeochemical cycles, and that highlights the vulnerability of tropical biodiversity to climate change.
气候变化正在加剧全球生物多样性的衰退。众多观测研究将气温上升与陆地生态系统中生物丰度、丰富度和多样性的下降联系起来，但很少有研究考虑过热带森林土壤和落叶层动物群中高度多样且功能重要的群落。在此，我们报告了在热带森林进行三年全剖面土壤增温实验后，土壤和落叶层动物群在目级丰富度和多样性方面的大幅下降。这些下降在旱季最为明显，这表明干旱可能会加剧变暖的影响。与高纬度地区的研究结果相反，增温条件下动物总数增加，并且群落组成发生了重大变化，这些变化与之平行。这些反应是由相对少数嗜热类群，特别是甲螨的优势度增加所驱动的。我们的研究提供了直接的实验证据，表明变暖导致热带森林土壤和落叶层动物群的多样性下降和组成变化，这一结果可能对土壤功能和生物地球化学循环产生影响，并凸显了热带生物多样性对气候变化的脆弱性。
