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Bottom-up or top-down control in forest soil microcosms? Effects of soil fauna on fungal biomass and C/N mineralisation

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Author

Summary, in English

A major question in soil ecology is whether soil food webs are regulated by resources or by predators, i.e. bottom-up (donor) or top-down controlled. We tested the hypothesis that meso- and macrofaunal soil predators can regulate fungivore populations and, thereby cause a top-down cascade effect on fungal biomass and decomposition/mineralisation processes in boreal forest soils. The study was performed as a microcosm experiment with two contrasting soils (humus layers), one poor and one rich in N, and with different combinations of fungivore and predator soil fauna added to "defaunated" soil. In comparison with control microcosms lacking mesofauna (but with nematodes and protozoans), the presence of a diverse Collembola and Oribatida fungivore community significantly reduced the FDA-active fungal biomass or tended to reduce the ergosterol fraction of the fungal biomass in the N-poor humus, but no clear effect could be detected in the N-rich humus. Fungivores as well as fungivores plus predators (a predator community consisting of gamasids, spiders and beetles or a subset thereof) reduced C mineralisation and increased net N mineralisation in both soils. The presence of predators (particularly gamasid mites) reduced collembolan numbers and alleviated the negative effect of fungivores on fungal biomass in the N-poor soil. In the N-rich soil, the presence of predators increased fungal biomass (ergosterol) in relation to the "defaunated" soil. Therefore, a top-down trophic cascade could be detected in the N-poor humus but not in the N-rich humus. Our results suggest that the degree of top-down control in soil fauna communities depends on resource quality and soil fertility.

Publishing year

2007

Language

English

Pages

281-294

Publication/Series

Biology and Fertility of Soils

Volume

43

Issue

3

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Springer

Topic

  • Biological Sciences

Keywords

  • trophic cascade
  • top-down
  • gamasina
  • oribatida
  • collembola

Status

Published

Research group

  • Microbial Ecology

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0178-2762