Trait‐mediated responses to aridity and experimental drought by springtail communities across Europe

Wiley 2023-01

Ferrín, Miquel
Márquez, Laura
Petersen, Henning
Salmon, Sandrine
Ponge, Jean‐François
Arnedo, Miquel
Emmett, Bridget
Beier, Claus
Schmidt, Inger K.
Tietema, Albert
de Angelis, Paolo
Liberati, Dario
Kovács‐Láng, Edit
Kröel‐Dulay, György
Estiarte, Marc
Bartrons, Mireia
Peñuelas, Josep
Peguero, Guille

1. The capacity to forecast the effects of climate change on biodiversity largely relies on identifying traits capturing mechanistic relationships with the environment through standardized field experiments distributed across relevant spatial scales. The effects of short-term experimental manipulations on local communities may overlap with regional climate gradients that have been operating during longer time periods. However, to the best of our knowledge, there are no studies simultaneously assessing such long-term macroecological drivers with local climate manipulations. 2. We analysed this issue with springtails (Class Collembola), one of the dominant soil fauna groups, in a standardized climate manipulation experiment conducted across six European countries encompassing broad climate gradients. We combined community data (near 20K specimens classified into 102 species) with 22 eco-morphological traits and reconstructed their phylogenetic relationships to track the evolution of adaptations to live at different soil depths, which is key to cope with desiccation. We then applied joint species distribution models to investigate the combined effect of the regional aridity gradient with the local experimental treatment (drought and warming) over the assembly of springtail communities and tested for significant trait–environment relationships mediating their community-level responses. 3. Our results show (1) a convergent evolution in all three major collembolan lineages of species adapted to inhabit at different soil strata; (2) a clear signature of aridity selecting traits of more epigeic species at a biogeographical scale and (3) the association of short-term experimental drought with traits related to more euedaphic life-forms. 4. The hemiedaphic condition would be the plesiomorphic state for Collembola while the adaptations for an epigeic life would have been secondarily gained. Epigeic springtails are not only more resistant to drought, but also have a higher disp

Ecology and Environment; Publication - Article; PeerReviewed

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UKNRA oai:nora.nerc.ac.uk:534895
Ferrín, Miquel; Márquez, Laura; Petersen, Henning; Salmon, Sandrine; Ponge, Jean‐François; Arnedo, Miquel; Emmett, Bridget; Beier, Claus; Schmidt, Inger K.; Tietema, Albert; de Angelis, Paolo; Liberati, Dario; Kovács‐Láng, Edit; Kröel‐Dulay, György; Estiarte, Marc; Bartrons, Mireia; Peñuelas, Josep; Peguero, Guille. 2023 Trait‐mediated responses to aridity and experimental drought by springtail communities across Europe. Functional Ecology, 37 (1). 44-56. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.14036
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