ABSTRACT Soils deliver several ecosystem services including carbon sequestration and nutrient cycling, which are of central importance to climate mitigation and sustainable food

production1,2,3. Soil biota play an important role in carbon and nitrogen cycling, and, although the effects of land use on soil food webs are well documented4,5,6, the consequences for

their resistance and resilience to climate change are not known. We compared the resistance and resilience to drought—which is predicted to increase under climate change2,7—of soil food webs

of two common land-use systems: intensively managed wheat with a bacterial-based soil food web and extensively managed grassland with a fungal-based soil food web. We found that the

land use strongly affects the resistance and resilience of soil food webs to climate change, and that extensively managed grassland promotes more resistant, and adaptable, fungal-based soil

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customer support SIMILAR CONTENT BEING VIEWED BY OTHERS CONVENTIONAL AGRICULTURE AND NOT DROUGHT ALTERS RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN SOIL BIOTA AND FUNCTIONS Article Open access 14 December 2021

DRIVERS OF SOIL MICROBIAL AND DETRITIVORE ACTIVITY ACROSS GLOBAL GRASSLANDS Article Open access 01 December 2023 LAND MANAGEMENT SHAPES DROUGHT RESPONSES OF DOMINANT SOIL MICROBIAL TAXA

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references ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project was part of the EU Seventh Framework funded SOILSERVICE project, led by K. Hedlund. We thank all project partners for contributing to this manuscript

through discussions. We thank S. Mortimer and D. Carpenter for setting up the field experiment, and G. Hildred for allowing us into his fields. H. Quirk, L. Trimnell, V. van Velzen, A. 

Spangenberg, L. F. Petersen, I. Dodd, G. Mies, F. Willeboordse, B. v/d Waterbeemd, C. Siderius, E. Wilson and K. Wilson helped with field and laboratory work. We thank K. Orwin and W. van

der Putten for commenting on the manuscript. AUTHOR INFORMATION AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * Soil and Ecosystem Ecology, Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 3EX,

UK Franciska T. de Vries & Richard D. Bardgett * Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, Niemenkatu 73, Lahti, FIN-15140, Finland Mira E. Liiri & Heikki M.

Setälä * Biologisk Institut, Terrestrisk Økologi, Øster Farimagsgade 2D, 1353 København K, Denmark Lisa Bjørnlund & Søren Christensen * Southwest Biological Science Center, US Geological

Survey, PO Box 5614, Building 56 No 150, Flagstaff, Arizona 86011, USA Matthew A. Bowker Authors * Franciska T. de Vries View author publications You can also search for this author

inPubMed Google Scholar * Mira E. Liiri View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Lisa Bjørnlund View author publications You can also search for

this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Matthew A. Bowker View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Søren Christensen View author publications You

can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Heikki M. Setälä View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Richard D. Bardgett View

author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar CONTRIBUTIONS R.D.B., H.M.S., S.C., F.T.d.V., M.E.L. and L.B. had the original idea for the experiment.

F.T.d.V. set up the experiment, and laboratory work was conducted by F.T.d.V., M.E.L. and L.B. M.A.B. carried out the structural equation modelling. The manuscript was written principally by

F.T.d.V. and R.D.B., with extensive input from H.M.S., S.C., M.E.L., L.B. and M.A.B. CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Correspondence to Franciska T. de Vries. ETHICS DECLARATIONS COMPETING INTERESTS

The authors declare no competing financial interests. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION (PDF 2284 KB) RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE

CITE THIS ARTICLE de Vries, F., Liiri, M., Bjørnlund, L. _et al._ Land use alters the resistance and resilience of soil food webs to drought. _Nature Clim Change_ 2, 276–280 (2012).

https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate1368 Download citation * Received: 28 February 2011 * Accepted: 06 December 2011 * Published: 29 January 2012 * Issue Date: April 2012 * DOI:

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