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Science 11 June 2004:
Vol. 304. no. 5677, pp. 1629 - 1633
DOI: 10.1126/science.1094875
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Review

Ecological Linkages Between Aboveground and Belowground Biota

David A. Wardle,1,2* Richard D. Bardgett,3 John N. Klironomos,4 Heikki Setälä,5 Wim H. van der Putten,6 Diana H. Wall7

All terrestrial ecosystems consist of aboveground and belowground components that interact to influence community- and ecosystem-level processes and properties. Here we show how these components are closely interlinked at the community level, reinforced by a greater degree of specificity between plants and soil organisms than has been previously supposed. As such, aboveground and belowground communities can be powerful mutual drivers, with both positive and negative feedbacks. A combined aboveground-belowground approach to community and ecosystem ecology is enhancing our understanding of the regulation and functional significance of biodiversity and of the environmental impacts of human-induced global change phenomena.

1 Landcare Research, Post Office Box 69, Lincoln, New Zealand.
2 Department of Forest Vegetation Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SE901 83 Umeå, Sweden.
3 Department of Biological Sciences, Institute of Environmental and Natural Sciences, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YQ, UK.
4 Department of Botany, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 2W1, Canada.
5 Department of Ecological and Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, Niemenkatu 73, FIN-15140 Lahti, Finland.
6 Department of Multitrophic Interactions, Netherlands Institute of Ecology, Heteren, Netherlands.
7 Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: david.wardle{at}svek.slu.se

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