Research activities

The understanding of the functional basis of how organisms interact with each other and with their environment is a key research objective of our department. Trait approaches are used to characterize functional community structure, to quantify the effects of organisms on ecosystem functioning, and for the parameterization of models on species distribution and ecosystem carbon and water balance. A particularly strong research focus lies on the impact of global change factors such as increasing drought and land use change on biodiversity and ecosystem processes. Using field and laboratory experiments and modeling approaches, we study mainly terrestrial ecosystems with a focus on Mediterranean systems, but also including tropical ecosystems mainly in South America, and temperate and alpine ecosystems.

Head of the department: Stephan HÄTTENSCHWILER

Key words

Biogeochemical cycles | Climate change | Community structure | Functional diversity | Functional traits | Global change | Mechanistic modelling | Mediterranean ecosystems | Plant-soil interactions | Soil ecology | Terrestrial ecosystems | Water relations

 New publication :

• Henneron L, Wardle DA, Berg MP, Hättenschwiler S, Bauhus J, Buscot F, Coq S, Decaëns T, Fromin N, Ganault P, Gillespie LM, Goldmann K, Matula R, Milcu A, Muys B, Nahmani J, Prada-Salcedo LD, Scherer-Lorenzen M, Verheyen K, Wambsganss J, Kardol P (2026). Tree community resource economics control soil food web multifunctionality. Nature, doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10455-1.  
  

Abstract

Plants affect terrestrial ecosystem functioning by shaping microenvironments and by providing the primary production that fuels energy flow into food webs. However, how plant community properties affect ecosystem functioning via energy fluxes in food webs has been little studied, especially for the soil food webs that channel most plant-derived energy. Applying a food web energetics approach, we show that the resource economics of dominant tree species control soil food web multifunctionality across European forests. Tree communities dominated by resource-acquisitive species promoted faster rates of multiple soil trophic functions than did communities dominated by resource-conservative species. These effects were primarily driven by higher-quality litter and warmer forest microclimates, leading to increased metabolic activity of soil organisms. Accordingly, tree species composition explained a large portion of variation in soil food web multifunctionality, comparable to that explained by biogeographic differences among locations. By contrast, mixtures of three tree species had weakly negative effects relative to single-species stands, mostly due to shifts in energy channelling from living fine roots to litter and a cooling effect on forest microclimate. This occurred despite an overyielding effect in aboveground tree biomass production, suggesting contrasting diversity effects above- and belowground. Our findings emphasize the importance of plant functional traits related to resource economics as drivers of soil food web functioning and demonstrate how climate-driven shifts in tree community composition may alter forest soil functioning.

Publication from the project SoilForEUROPE 

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