Legacy effects in heathlands: Decoupling above- and belowground responses to subsequent drought events
Keywords:
Climate change, Heathlands, Microbial communities, Soil legacyAbstract
Climate change is intensifying droughts and disrupting ecosystem carbon cycles. A pivotal study reveals a critical insight: while chronic drought permanently alters the soil microbiome, these belowground legacies have a surprisingly minor effect on subsequent CO₂ fluxes. Instead, the primary driver of reduced carbon uptake is aboveground plant vulnerability, not soil microbial changes. This decoupling between resilient soils and vulnerable plants exposes a fundamental gap in climate models, which must now account for this plant-mediated risk to accurately project future climate-carbon feedbacks and inform conservation strategies.
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