Tree community resource economics control soil food web multifunctionality
Ludovic Henneron · David A. Wardle · Matty P. Berg · Stephan Hättenschwiler · Jürgen Bauhus · François Buscot · Sylvain Coq · Thibaud Decaëns · Nathalie Fromin · Pierre Ganault · Lauren M. Gillespie · Kezia Goldmann · Radim Matula · Alexandru Milcu · Bart Muys · Johanne Nahmani · Luis Daniel Prada-Salcedo · Michael Scherer-Lorenzen · Kris Verheyen · Janna Wambsganss · Paul Kardol
期刊Nature
类型Article
发表2026-05-06 (online)
卷期页655(8121): 133-140
收录2026-10-09
被浏览…
关键词tree community compositionresource economicsplant functional traitstree species mixtureslitter qualityforest microclimatefine rootsoveryieldingEuropean forests
标签—
Plants affect terrestrial ecosystem functioning by shaping microenvironments 1 and by providing the primary production that fuels energy flow into food webs 2 . However, how plant community properties affect ecosystem functioning via energy fluxes in food webs has been little studied 3,4 , especially for the soil food webs that channel most plant-derived energy 2,5 . Applying a food web energetics approach 6,7 , 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 8 . 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 5,9 and demonstrate how climate-driven shifts in tree community composition may alter forest soil functioning.

@article{henneron2026,
author = {Ludovic Henneron and David A. Wardle and Matty P. Berg and Stephan Hättenschwiler and Jürgen Bauhus and François Buscot and Sylvain Coq and Thibaud Decaëns and Nathalie Fromin and Pierre Ganault and Lauren M. Gillespie and Kezia Goldmann and Radim Matula and Alexandru Milcu and Bart Muys and Johanne Nahmani and Luis Daniel Prada-Salcedo and Michael Scherer-Lorenzen and Kris Verheyen and Janna Wambsganss and Paul Kardol},
title = {Tree community resource economics control soil food web multifunctionality},
journal = {Nature},
year = {2026},
volume = {655},
number = {8121},
pages = {133-140},
doi = {10.1038/s41586-026-10455-1},
publisher = {Springer Science and Business Media LLC},
}· END ·