Figure 2: Particularities of extinction susceptibility for soil biota.
Differential extinction susceptibility as influenced by three particularities of belowground food webs, (a) extreme population sizes—population sizes for belowground organisms may exceed considerably the minimal viable population thresholds, or alternatively for asexual organisms the minimal viable population could coincide with a single individual; (b) physiological versatility—definitions of habitat loss for belowground organisms differ considerably from those for aboveground organisms and physiologically versatile organisms may suffer less from changes in their habitat; (c) high adaptation potential1,84 that is particularly relevant to the microbial taxa (in the panel population size factors that could affect adaptation speed were not considered but could have exacerbated differences). Representative examples of each group of belowground organisms are presented in the images on the right of each panel. For modelling extinction debt a hyperbolic extinction trajectory over time was assumed. Figure design based on the study by Kuussaari et al.35 Image credits: top left panel—Anika Lehmann; middle and bottom left panels—Diana Andrade; top and bottom right panels—Stefanie Maaß; Middle right panel—Karoline Weißhuhn. Reproduced with permission from the authors.
