Mycorrhizal networks and complex systems: Contributions of soil ecology science to managing climate change effects in forested ecosystems

Abstract

Soil ecology science has contributed a rich understanding of natural soil patterns and processes, and played a role in revolutionizing the management of ecosystems. This basic understanding is also providing a foundation for predicting and managing the consequences of climate change on ecosystems, including their resilience to disturbance, biotic diversity, and carbon and nutrient dynamics. To help address the challenges of climate change, future soil ecology research and management would benefit from a complex systems approach, where network and dynamics systems theory are used to predict plant community and ecosystem responses to disturbance. A reductionist approach to management that ignores networks and system dynamics, by contrast, is destined to contribute to ecological degradation as climate changes. In this paper, I describe mycorrhizal networks as models of biological networks in the interior Douglas-fir forests of British Columbia, and the role they play in carbon flux and regeneration dynamics following disturbance. I propose a conservationist approach for managing forest mycorrhizal networks and hub trees that can facilitate native plant migrations, limit exotic plant invasions, and bolster ecological resilience. Interdisciplinary research that integrates the dynamics of multiple, overlapping networks will help develop management practices that sustain ecosystems in our changing climate. Key words: Climate change, complex systems, mycorrhizal networks, species migrations