Peter C. De Ruiter

Effects of global changes on above- and belowground biodiversity in terrestrial ecosystems: implications for ecosystem functioning.

bove- and belowground organisms are criticalforthe biogeochemical cycles that sustain the Earth,butthere is limited knowledge on the extent to which the biotabelow ground and the functions they perform are dependenton the biota above ground,and vice versa.Hooper et al.(2000) provide a synthesis ofthe patterns and mechanismslinking above- and belowground biodiversity.The close re-lationship between vegetation change and soil carbon (C)dynamics (Jobbagy and Jackson 2000) suggests that anydisruption ofthe coupling between plants and soil organ-isms as a result ofglobal change may have deleterious con-sequences for functioning ofterrestrial ecosystems.However,most ofthe scientific evidence supporting this hypothesiscomes from correlative approaches.The complexity ofthenumerous interactions between various environmental