Climate change impact on Collembola and their responses to predation: a synthesis of 6 microcosm experiments
Abstract
Collembola is an abundant group of soil organisms playing a major role on litter decomposition and nutrient cycling in forest ecosystems. Habitat structure and climatic conditions control their demographic parameters and their interactions with predators. Thus, the ongoing climate change, with decreasing precipitation, increasing temperature and altering tree species assemblages, may strongly impact Collembola and their responses to predation. We therefore examined within 6 complementary experiments how decreasing soil moisture, increasing air temperature and altering litter properties combined to the presence of distinct predators affect Collembola communities. Generally, increasing temperature or decreasing soil moisture negatively affected Collembola demographic parameters and the intensity of these effects were dependent on litter properties. In addition, we evidenced that altered climatic conditions amplify the negative effect of predation on Collembola whatever the predator considered. These results point out that studying more complex systems appears essential to predict Collembola responses to climate change