Management legacy effects drive soil food web resistance and resilience to climatic stress

Soil organisms’ response to climate change largely depends on soil management practices and resulting soil organic carbon levels. Conservation agriculture practices (e.g., no-tillage and crop diversification) have been shown to protect soil organisms, improve micro-food webs, maintain soil structure and enhance carbon sequestration compared to conventional practices, potentially improving soil resistance and resilience to climate change. In a greenhouse experiment, we assessed the legacy effects of contrasting long-term soil management practices (conventional tillage/no-tillage in monoculture/rotation systems) on resilience and resistance to warming and drought of soil microbial functions, microfaunal food webs, and crop performance in dryland soils. Our results demonstrate that under extreme weather conditions, no-till legacy and crop rotation enhances soil biota resistance and resilience to drought and warming by enhancing soil organic carbon and water-holding capacity. There is a trade-off between resistance and resilience, and while microbial functions, generalist bacterivores, and fungivores show resistance (and no resilience) to climatic stress, opportunistic bacterivores and upper soil micro-food web levels show resilience (but no resistance) instead. Increased soil organic carbon levels derived from no-tillage practices were only partially responsible for the observed soil responses, suggesting that other soil properties derived from management history determine soil organisms’ resistance and resilience to climate change.