Tracking the flow of bacterially derived 13C and 15N through soil faunal feeding channels

A - Papers appearing in refereed journals

Crotty, F. V., Blackshaw, R. P. and Murray, P. J. 2011. Tracking the flow of bacterially derived 13C and 15N through soil faunal feeding channels. Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry. 25 (11), pp. 1503-1513. https://doi.org/10.1002/rcm.4945

AuthorsCrotty, F. V., Blackshaw, R. P. and Murray, P. J.
Abstract

The soil food web has been referred to as a 'black box', a 'poor man's tropical rainforest' and an 'enigma', due to its opacity, diversity and the limited insight into feeding specificity. Here we investigate the flow of C and N through the soil food web as a way to gain understanding of the feeding interactions occurring. A bacterium, Pseudomonas lurida, was introduced to soil cores from two different habitats, a grassland and a woodland with the same soil type, enriched to 99 atom% in C-13 and N-15, to trace the flow of bacterial C and N through the soil food web. Throughout the experiment the soil remained enriched in C-13 and N-15. Almost all the invertebrates tested gained C and N enrichment indicative of the labelled bacteria, implying that bacterial feeding is a common mechanism within the soil. Only three groups were significantly enriched in both C-13 and N-15 in both habitats. These were Collembola (Entomobryomorpha), Acari (Oribatida), and Nematoda, indicating that these organisms are consuming the most bacteria within both systems. When the invertebrates were grouped into hypothesised trophic levels, those considered secondary decomposers were gaining the most enrichment across all invertebrates tested. This enrichment was also high in the micro-predators within the soil, implying that their main food source was the secondary decomposers, particularly the Collembola. Using an enriched bacterium to track the trophic transfer between organisms within the soil food web is a novel way of empirically showing that interactions are occurring, which normally cannot be seen. Copyright (C) 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

KeywordsBiochemical Research Methods; Chemistry, Analytical; Spectroscopy
Year of Publication2011
JournalRapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry
Journal citation25 (11), pp. 1503-1513
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1002/rcm.4945
PubMed ID21594923
Open accessPublished as non-open access
FunderBiotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
Funder project or codeSEF
North Wyke Research (NWR)
Project: 9070
Project: 2012
Project: 5741
ISSN09514198
0951-4198
PublisherWiley

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