Intensive grassland management and drought amplify pathways of energy flux in soil food webs

Intensive grassland management and drought amplify pathways of energy flux in soil food webs | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Intensive grassland management and drought amplify pathways of energy flux in soil food webs Tancredi Caruso, Mathilde Chomel, Jocelyn Lavallee, Nil Alvarez Segura, and 10 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-5965582/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Soil food webs contribute significantly to ecosystem energy (carbon) fluxes, but how energy flow through them is affected by both intensification of land management and extreme climatic events, such as drought, is poorly understood. Here, we quantified in situ the energetics and stability of soil food webs under experimental drought across a range grasslands in the United Kingdom with contrasting management intensity. Over the short term of a growing season and a wide range of environmental conditions, drought increased food web energy fluxes and respiration resulting in more unpredictable distribution of fluxes. Intensive grassland management similarly increased energy fluxes and total ecosystem respiration. Our statistical modelling confirmed that the changes observed in soil food web energy fluxes under drought and intensive management trigger an increase in ecosystem respiration mediated by decreased predictability in the distribution of the soil food web energy fluxes. The latter was also linked to reduced population level return time, likely caused by the recovery of metabolically faster components of the food webs such as bacteria. The study thus shed lights on how land use intensification combined with climate change alters pathways of below-ground energy flux and processes that may cause net emissions of C from soil Biological sciences/Ecology/Ecological networks Earth and environmental sciences/Ecology/Climate-change ecology grassland drought management soil food web energy fluxes networks stability Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files SUPPLEMENTARYINFORMATION.pdf Supplementary Information Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-5965582","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":414980815,"identity":"d9f11d1b-4a1c-4a8d-b273-e1d0e61812ab","order_by":0,"name":"Tancredi 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