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Linking Aboveground–Belowground Ecology: A Short Historical Perspective

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Aboveground–Belowground Community Ecology

Part of the book series: Ecological Studies ((ECOLSTUD,volume 234))

Abstract

The study of aboveground–belowground interactions has developed rapidly over the last three decades, and it is now a major theme of community and ecosystem ecology. It is now well established that reciprocal interactions between aboveground and belowground communities not only shape the structure and functioning of terrestrial ecosystems, but also they regulate their response to global change across a hierarchy of temporal and spatial scales. In this chapter, I explore the development of this topic over the last 30 or so years, tracing its rise in prominence in community and ecosystem ecology. I first consider how the two historically distinct fields of aboveground and belowground ecology merged during the late 1980s and 1990s and then how the topic developed and consolidated during the early part of the twenty first century. Finally, I consider some of the challenges that lie ahead for aboveground and belowground ecology, especially in the context of global change and the need for sustainable land management strategies for the delivery of multiple ecosystem services.

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  1. School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

    Richard D. Bardgett

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  1. Center for Ecological Research, Kyoto University, Shiga, Japan

    Takayuki Ohgushi

  2. Functional Biodiversity, Institute of Biology, Freie Universität, Berlin, Germany

    Susanne Wurst

  3. Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW, Australia

    Scott N. Johnson

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Bardgett, R.D. (2018). Linking Aboveground–Belowground Ecology: A Short Historical Perspective. In: Ohgushi, T., Wurst, S., Johnson, S. (eds) Aboveground–Belowground Community Ecology. Ecological Studies, vol 234. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91614-9_1

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