Biology subjects

Berg, M. P.

Publications and source records attributed to Berg, M. P..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

Resource economics of tree communities control soil food web multifunctionality in European forests

Plants affect terrestrial ecosystem functioning by performing the primary production that energetically sustains heterotrophic organisms1, and by shaping the microenvironment2. However, the influence of plant diversity and community composition on ecosystem functioning through their effects on energy flow into food webs has been little studied3,4, especially for soil food webs that channel most of the plant-derived energy1,5. Applying a food web energetics approach6,7, we show that the resource economics of dominant tree species control soil food web multifunctionality across European forests. Specifically, tree communities dominated by resource acquisitive species promoted faster rates of multiple soil trophic functions simultaneously than did those dominated by resource conservative species. This was primarily driven by their production of plant litter with higher nutritional quality and their warmer forest microclimate, leading to a higher metabolic activity of soil organisms8. Tree species mixing had rather weak and negative effects on soil food web multifunctionality, mostly due to a shift in the resource-based energy channeling from living plant fine roots to litter and a cooling effect on the forest microclimate. Tree diversity effects were largely outweighed by community compositional effects, which were of similar magnitude to the effects of biogeographic differences among locations. Our findings emphasize the importance of plant functional traits related to resource economics as drivers of plant community effects on soil food web functioning5,9 and highlight the consequences that climate-driven shifts in tree community composition could have for forest soil functioning.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2024

An in-depth dataset of northwestern European arthropod life histories and ecological traits

In response to the ongoing biodiversity crisis among arthropods, it is essential to implement efficient conservation strategies to safeguard both species diversity and the vital ecosystem services they provide. Developing such strategies requires reliable predictive models that can identify the species that are the most vulnerable to current and future threats, including those posed by climate and land-use change. Species life histories are central to these models, as they influence both population dynamics and spread rates. To support this effort, we compiled a dataset with key traits for arthropods based on several literature sources and expert knowledge. The dataset contains data on body size, life history, thermal niche and ecology for 4874 northwestern European species across 10 different orders. By gathering these essential trait data, we aim to create a robust foundation for predicting species vulnerability and anticipating shifts in arthropod communities in response to global change.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2023

The Soil Food Web Ontology: aligning trophic groups, processes, and resources to harmonise and automatise soil food web reconstructions

Although soil ecology has benefited from recent advances in describing the functional and trophic traits of soil organisms, data reuse for large-scale soil food-web reconstructions still faces challenges. These obstacles include: (1) most data on the trophic interactions and feeding behaviour of soil organisms being scattered across disparate repositories, without well-established standard for describing and structuring trophic datasets; (2) the existence of various competing terms, rather than consensus, to delineate feeding-related concepts such as diets, trophic groups, feeding processes, resource types, leading to ambiguities that hinder meaningful data integration from different studies; (3) considerable divergence in the trophic classification of numerous soil organisms, or even the lack of such classifications, leading to discrepancies in the resolution of reconstructed food webs and complicating the reuse and comparison of food-web models within synthetic studies. To address these issues, we introduce the Soil Food Web Ontology, a novel formal conceptual framework designed to foster agreement on the trophic ecology of soil organisms. This ontology represents a collaborative and ongoing endeavour aimed at establishing consensus and formal definitions for the array of concepts relevant to soil trophic ecology. Its primary objective is to enhance the accessibility, interpretation, combination, reuse, and automated processing of trophic data. By harmonising the terminology and fundamental principles of soil trophic ecology, we anticipate that the Soil Food Web Ontology will improve knowledge management within the field. It will help soil ecologists to better harness existing information regarding the feeding behaviours of soil organisms, facilitate more robust trophic classifications, streamline the reconstruction of soil food webs, and ultimately render food-web research more inclusive, reusable and reproducible.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2022

Globally invariant metabolism but density-diversity mismatch in springtails

Soil life supports the functioning and biodiversity of terrestrial ecosystems1, 2. Springtails (Collembola) are among the most abundant soil animals regulating soil fertility and flow of energy through above- and belowground food webs3-5. However, the global distribution of springtail diversity and density, and how these relate to energy fluxes remains unknown. Here, using a global dataset collected from 2,470 sites, we estimate total soil springtail biomass at 29 Mt carbon (threefold higher than wild terrestrial vertebrates6) and record peak densities up to 2 million individuals per m{superscript 2} in the Arctic. Despite a 20-fold biomass difference between tundra and the tropics, springtail energy use (community metabolism) remains similar across the latitudinal gradient, owing to the increase in temperature. Neither springtail density nor community metabolism were predicted by local species richness, which was highest in the tropics, but comparably high in some temperate forests and even tundra. Changes in springtail activity may emerge from latitudinal gradients in temperature, predation7, 8, and resource limitation7, 9, 10 in soil communities. Contrasting temperature responses of biomass, diversity and activity of springtail communities suggest that climate warming will alter fundamental soil biodiversity metrics in different directions, potentially restructuring terrestrial food webs and affecting major soil functions.

ecology↗