Ecosystem responses to global environmental changes may result from complex interactions between the direct effect of global change factors and indirect effects through changes in belowground biotic communities. Our increasing knowledge of global change effects on soil biota and their functions have challenged some aboveground-based predictions of ecosystem responses. This presentation will provide context for this session by showing how the effects of changing climate and land-use regimes on soil invertebrate fauna and their functions drive other ecosystem responses from tropical agro-ecosystems to North American grasslands. The relevance of this soil ecology science to environmental policies will be discussed.
