Meta-analysis of belowground trophic structure in a changing climate

Trophic interactions between soil organisms determine the amount of energy available for carbon and nutrient cycling, litter and detritus mixing, and aboveground food webs. How will current rates of anthropogenic climate change affect these trophic interactions and overall belowground trophic structure? Because multiple trophic levels are rarely examined in individual experiments, over 150 field and laboratory studies were organized by climate change factor (precipitation, warming, or elevated atmospheric CO₂) and trophic level (detritivores and herbivores, bacterivores and fungivores, or predators). A meta-analysis was performed using MetaWin software to determine whether abundances of organisms within different trophic levels predictably respond to changes in climate. Results suggest that changes in precipitation, temperature, and atmospheric CO₂ have different effects on belowground trophic structure, perhaps reflecting differences in bottom-up and top-down food web interactions.