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Updated: Jul 19, 2026

A Lipid Extraction and Analysis Method for Characterizing Soil Microbes in Experiments with Many Samples
Published on: July 16, 2017
Impacts of soil faunal community composition on model grassland ecosystems
M A Bradford1, T H Jones, R D Bardgett
1Natural Environment Research Council Centre for Population Biology, Department of Biological Sciences, Imperial College at Silwood Park, Ascot, SL5 7PY, UK. m.a.bradford@ic.ac.uk
Abstract:
Human impacts, including global change, may alter the composition of soil faunal communities, but consequences for ecosystem functioning are poorly understood. We constructed model grassland systems in the Ecotron controlled environment facility and manipulated soil community composition through assemblages of different animal body sizes. Plant community composition, microbial and root biomass, decomposition rate, and mycorrhizal colonization were all markedly affected. However, two key ecosystem processes, aboveground net primary productivity and net ecosystem productivity, were surprisingly resistant to these changes. We hypothesize that positive and negative faunal-mediated effects in soil communities cancel each other out, causing no net ecosystem effects.
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