Energy and biomass distribution in soil food webs of temperate and tropical forests

Abstract

Abstract Soil food webs channel most of the energy in terrestrial ecosystems. Temperate and tropical forests host different soil invertebrate communities, but consequent differences in the structure and functioning of soil food webs between these major biomes remain unknown. Here, we calculate energy fluxes to explore generic patterns in biomass and energy distribution across micro-, meso- and macrofauna in forest ecosystems spanning from southern taiga to tropical rainforests. Tropical soil food webs have either larger (monsoon forest) or smaller (rainforest) animal biomass than temperate ones, but have consistently higher energy flux, higher share of large organisms (macrofauna) in total biomass and distinct energy distribution. Specifically, tropical soil food webs have proportionally higher predation rates than temperate soil food webs and rely more on plant consumption (living roots), but less on bacterial, fungal and litter consumption. Earthworms act as food-web engineers promoting detrital energy pathways (litter, soil and deadwood consumption) in mixed broadleaved forests overriding climate-associated differences among forests. Our study shows a major change in soil food web from “brown” temperate to “green” tropical functional state, explaining functional implications of soil invertebrate community turnover across biomes.