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Description
European tundra and boreal forest ecosystems will experience one of the strongest impacts of climate change on the Earth. These habitats and northern temperate ecosystems will become disproportionately warmer compared with other global biomes according to the general averaged climate change scenarios. Because living organisms exhibit physiological optima for temperature and specific requirements for habitat quality, rapid shifts in vegetation and entire biomes pose the greatest challenges to cope with under global change. In the current epoch of unprecedentedly rapid climate change, further human interventions may offer both threats and opportunities to restore ecosystem services and mitigate ecological and economic damage. We, the humans, can actually control much of the greenhouse gas emissions related to land use shifts, agricultural and forestry practices by determining and implementing ‘climate-friendly’ ways of management and sustainable use of soil resources in agriculture and forestry from the global change perspective. In particular, due to their effect on both productivity and soil processes, certain land use and forest management practices can be helpful for promoting soil C storage.
This project has five principal objectives.
Obj1: To develop novel molecular methods for rapid abundance assessment of various microbial groups and their potential of organic degradation and carbon release.
Obj2: To determine shifts in carbon allocation in plants and carbon sequestration in soil along the latitudinal gradient in response to climate change.
Obj3: To evaluate the economic costs and benefits of changing climate on various aspects of forestry and soil carbon balance.
Obj4: To determine ecological sustainability of afforestation of former agricultural land.
Obj5: To develop sustainable forestry and other land use practices to mitigate the negative effects of climate change on one hand and securing forest productivity on the other hand.
Summary of project results
The project had five principal objectives:
Obj1: To develop novel molecular methods for rapid abundance assessment of various microbial groups and their potential for organic degradation and carbon release.
Obj2: To determine shifts in carbon allocation in plants and carbon sequestration in soil along the latitudinal gradient in response to climate change.
Obj3: To evaluate the economic costs and benefits of changing climate on various aspects of forestry and soil carbon balance.
Obj4: To determine the ecological sustainability of afforestation of formerly agricultural land.
Obj5: To develop sustainable forestry and other land use practices to mitigate the negative effects of climate change on one hand and secure forest productivity on the other hand.
During the project, we developed DNA-based methods for more accurate and rapid determination of microbes. Some of the proposed methods improved the overall workflow, but others failed and had to be abandoned. The project revealed that soil microbes are sensitive to climate change both directly and indirectly through changes in plant cover. Industrial forest management reduces the biodiversity of mutualistic fungi, increases the proportion of pathogens and soil carbon losses mainly due to disturbance. When farmland is afforested, the emission of greenhouse gases decreases, and the biodiversity of microbes that are beneficial to humans increases. We developed a method for landowners to generate income from both carbon and biodiversity conservation.
The outcome of the project is scientifically relevant as it provides novel insight into the role of microbes in ecosystem transitions and related carbon sequestration. The results (presented in scientific publications and scientific conferences) and unpublished data are of great value to science as they help determine the ecological sustainability of afforestation of formerly agricultural land, and develop sustainable forestry and other land use practices to mitigate the negative effects of climate change.
The abundance and taxonomic composition of soil fungi can affect the intensity of decomposition of soil organic matter and thereby influence climate warming. Therefore, it is very important to study not only soil chemical parameters but also soil fungi in different ecosystems. The main objectives of the work were to understand the influence of the afforestation process on soil fungi, soil organic carbon, and other chemical parameters of the soil, and which ecosystems are more conducive to stopping climate change and are less sensitive to climate warming.
Also, to help solve the actual problem of global climate warming, it is important to comprehensively study soil organic carbon, soil fungi, and other parameters at different depths in the soil. One of the objectives of the study was to investigate chemical and microbiological parameters and their interactions at various soil depths (0-5 to 195-200 cm) on different soils in different forest types in Lithuania, with a focus on the main groups of fungi and their influence on soil organic carbon.
The results of the project allow us to assess how landowners can manage the forest sustainably, taking into account soil carbon and biodiversity, which have not been accounted for until now. The results of the project also show that changes in land use and climate affect soil biota. In particular, major changes in vegetation cover should be avoided, as microbes depend on carbon from plant roots or stems.
The analysis and publication of the results continue, and the following studies, not directly related to the project, in the field of grassland microbiome, soil carbon and reforestation are built on the results of this project.
Summary of bilateral results
The partners discussed their research interests and possibilities and jointly established the research objectives as well as the schemes of sampling and analytical procedures. All partners took part in sampling.Contribution by UT: CO2 emission measurement training to the Lithuanian partner. Bioinformatics and data analysis, development and testing of the UNISPIKE molecule, development and analysis of target capture DNA barcodes. Metagenomics and transcriptomics data. It was crucial to have a donor partner in the project because of their expertise in plant ecology and statistics related to community ecology. This secured proper experiment planning, detailed identification of plants and sound statistical analyses.Contribution by UiT: Experimental design, data analysis, participation in large scale sampling and technical and professional contribution to studies led by the Estonian team.Contribution by Silava: Studies of forest regeneration and afforestation of marginal lands including peatlands to improve efficiency of forest regeneration; Vegetation monitoring and light transmission through canopy measurements.Contribution by LAMMC: successions of soil microbial communities in light-textured soil using various organic fertilizers; energy plant cultivation for solid biofuel (including using of sewage sludge compost as fertilizer of energy crops) in the context of decreasing greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere and of improving soil chemical properties; preparation of soil for chemical and metagenomic analysis.During the project activities, participants successfully cooperated and shared their knowledge. A strong team has been formed with plans to cooperate in the future and write new publications using the data from this project. We plan to prepare and, if we succeed, implement new international projects together with project partners from different countries to broaden our collaborative network to Southern and Western Europe.