OOS 27 - The Next “Black Box”: The Role of Soil Invertebrates in Plant-Soil Interactions

Organizer(s)

• MM

  Meghan Midgley, PhD

  Soil Ecologist
  Morton Arboretum
  Lisle, Illinois, United States

Co-Organizer(s)

• JL

  Janey Lienau

  Graduate Student
  Yale University, United States

Moderator(s)

• MM

  Meghan Midgley, PhD

  Soil Ecologist
  Morton Arboretum
  Lisle, Illinois, United States

Soil invertebrates mediate the relationship between plant communities and soil biogeochemistry. The traits of soil invertebrates, including body stoichiometry, growth rates, feeding choices, and phenology, influence organic matter processing rates and whether it remains in or leaves the soil system. Plants also shape the abundance, species composition, and diversity of soil invertebrate communities and food webs via the quantity and chemistry of their above- and belowground litters. Consequently, plant and soil invertebrate communities interact during the development of terrestrial ecosystems and together determine decomposition, nutrient cycling, carbon storage, and other emergent properties. At the same time, environmental changes, such as pollution and climate change, are reducing invertebrate diversity and abundance globally, destabilizing food webs. The role soil invertebrates play in plant-soil interactions is recognized but poorly defined in soil biogeochemical dynamics. As such, soil invertebrates are the new “black box” of soil ecology. In this session, presenters will explore the effects of plant communities on the soil invertebrates beneath them and highlight the consequences of soil invertebrate community composition and food web dynamics for soil biogeochemistry.

Presentations:

• 10:00 AM – 10:15 AM EDT

  Tree traits predict the abundance and diversity of soil organisms across century-old monocultures
  

  Presenting Author: Janey R. Lienau – Yale University

  Co-author: Janey R. Lienau – Yale University

  Co-author: Meghan G. Midgley, PhD – Morton Arboretum

  Co-author: Robert Buchkowski – Atlantic Forestry Centre

  Co-author: Leticia Flores – Elmhurst University
• 10:15 AM – 10:30 AM EDT

  The effects of mycorrhizal-associated trees on the belowground food web
  

  Presenting Author: Amanda Henderson – University of Illinois - Chicago

  Co-author: Meghan G. Midgley, PhD – Morton Arboretum

  Co-author: David Wise – University of Illinois at Chicago
• 10:30 AM – 10:45 AM EDT

  The role of soil invertebrates in driving plant and ecosystem responses to global change
  

  Presenting Author: André Franco – Colorado State University
• 10:45 AM – 11:00 AM EDT

  Drivers of decomposition and the detrital invertebrate community differ across a hummock-hollow microtopology in Boreal peatlands
  

  Presenting Author: Carlos Barreto – Western University

  Co-author: Zoë Lindo, Dr. – Western University
• 11:00 AM – 11:15 AM EDT

  Do resource subsidies alter energy flows through soil food webs? Implications for C and N cycling in subarctic Iceland
  

  Presenting Author: Matthew McCary, PhD – Rice University

  Co-author: Amanda Koltz, Ph.D. – Washington University

  Co-author: Claudio Gratton, Ph.D. – UW-Madison

  Co-author: John C. Moore, Ph.D. – Colorado State University
• 11:15 AM – 11:30 AM EDT

  soilfoodwebs: Insights from analyzing soil food web models at and away from equilibrium
  

  Presenting Author: Robert Buchkowski – Atlantic Forestry Centre

  Co-author: Carlos Barreto – Western University

  Co-author: Zoë Lindo, Dr. – Western University