Complex effects effects of habitat habitat fragmentation fragmentation on plant‐soil‐ microbial microbial interactions interactions in Mediterranean Mediterranean Holm oak forests

DULCE FLORES RENTERÍA; ANA RICÓN; JORGE CURIEL YUSTE; TERESA MORÁN LÓPEZ; ANA MARÍA HERES; LETICIA PEREZ-IZQUIERDO; FERNANDO VALLADARES ROS

Dijon

Congreso; The First Global Soil Biodiversity Conference; 2014

Global soil biodiversity initiative

Habitat fragmentation negatively impact biodiversity, although the consequences on ecosystem functioning (e.g. soil organic matter decomposition, enzymatic activity) are poorly understood).Furthermore, the impacts of habitat fragmentation on the ecosystem functioning will firstly depend on the environmental biotic and abiotic conditions of the remnant areas and the surrounding matrix, and secondly, on the size of resulting fragments because the smaller the fragment higher the influence of the matrix in which it is imbibed. The goals of this study were (1) analyze the response of soil microbial functioning to the tree canopy cover and to the agricultural matrix where forest fragments were imbibed, and (2) identify the role and relative importance of biotic and abiotic factors in soil microbial functioning, at a landscape scale. Habitat fragmentation positively affects tree growth and productivity favoring SOM accumulation, in turn improving micro‐environmental conditions for microbial activity.Based on the higher enzymatic activity observed in the high agricultural matrix environments, forest fragmentation may favor C:N:Pacquisition from SOM altering the ecosystem nutrient cycling, with unknown consequences in the long term. Due to the important alterations that habitat fragmentation exerts on plant‐soil‐microbial interactions, it is necessary to incorporate them to global change predictions.