Do enchytraeid worms and habitat corridors facilitate the colonisation of habitat patches by soil microbes?

Due to their high abundance and ubiquitous existence, microbes are considered to be efficient colonisers of newly established habitats. To shed light on the dispersal mechanisms of soil microbes, a controlled microcosm experiment was established. In these microcosms, the dispersal of microbes from a source humus patch to originally sterile humus patches (embedded in a mineral soil matrix) was followed for 16 months, applying 16S and 18S ribosomal DNA-based PCR-DGGE molecular methods. Specifically, the role of enchytraeid worms and habitat (humus) corridors as possible facilitators of microbe dispersal was studied. The results showed that enchytraeid worms function efficiently as vectors for horizontal dispersal of saprophytic fungi in soil. Some of the fungi also proved to disperse through the corridors by vegetative growth, although this dispersal was inefficient as compared to dispersal with the enchytraeids. Virtually no saprophytic fungi were able to disperse through the mineral soil matrix in the absence of both enchytraeid worms and corridors. Unlike soil fungi, the dispersal of soil bacteria was not affected by any of the studied factors. The results of the present experiment provide direct evidence of the crucial role of soil fauna in aiding the horizontal dispersal of soil fungi. The role of enchytraeids as a functionally important species in boreal forest soils is further emphasized, since bringing microbes into contact with new resources is likely to enhance the rate of decomposition in soils.     

Soil decomposer community as a model system in studying the effects of habitat fragmentation and habitat corridors

Due to the practical difficulties of experimental study of habitat fragmentation and habitat corridors at the landscape scale, the use of smaller-scale model systems has been offered as a feasible alternative to uncover the ecological phenomena taking place in fragmented environments. In this mini-review, we consider the applicability of the soil decomposer community as such a model system. For the most part, this article is based on the few studies that have explicitly addressed this question by experimental manipulations of the natural habitat of soil decomposer community. However, to broaden the view, we also capitalize upon studies focusing on the effects of isolation and soil use changes on soil organisms and on dispersal of soil fauna, all of these being considered as factors determining the sensitivity of organisms to habitat fragmentation. Since usability of a model system by definition depends on the possibility of applying the results to other (usually larger scale) systems, we discuss the characteristics of the soil decomposer community also from this point of view.The existing data suggest that soil organisms, in general, are not sensitive to habitat fragmentation even in small scale. Because of this, and the unique features of the belowground environment and its biota combined with gaps in the knowledge of the life history characteristics of soil organisms, the soil decomposer community is not ideal for predicting the implications of habitat fragmentation and habitat corridors on threatened species. Despite this, we still believe that there are lessons to be learned by studying the effects of habitat fragmentation on this important community of organisms, especially in combination with the consequences of ongoing climate change.     

Influence of resource quality on the composition of soil decomposer community in fragmented and continuous habitat

The aim of this field experiment was to explore the combined effects of two factors potentially affecting the local composition of soil decomposer community: resource quality and habitat fragmentation. We created humus (habitat) patches with three different resource quality: (1) pure homogenised humus; (2) humus enriched with needle litter; and (3) humus enriched with needle and leaf litter. These patches were embedded either in a mineral soil matrix, thus representing fragmented habitat, or in natural forest soil, representing continuous (non-fragmented) habitat. The development of faunal (colonisations/extinctions of soil animal populations) and microbial communities in the patches was followed for 12 months. Our results partly supported the hypothesized strong influence of resource quality on the structure of local soil food webs: the abundances of practically all groups of soil fauna, together with biomass of fungi, were higher in the litter-enriched patches than in the pure humus patches. The manifestation and magnitude of the responses of fauna were, however, strongly affected by complex interactions between the characteristics (especially colonisation capacity) of the faunal group in question, habitat quality and time of sampling. In microarthropods and nematodes, the effect of resource quality cascaded up to the predatory level, rendering further support to the existence of strong bottom-up control in soil food webs. Contrary to our expectations, species richness of the communities was not unanimously affected by resource quality. Habitat fragmentation affected the communities only through different number and identity of patch-colonising species in the fragmented and continuous habitat: fragmentation induced no extinctions of species during the experiment at any resource quality level. Consequently, the results indicate that resource quality is more important factor than habitat fragmentation in determining the local structure of communities in soils. On the other hand, colonisation capacities of soil organisms appear to set limits to the exploitation of local resources.     

Protocol: Optimised methodology for isolation of nuclei from leaves of species in the <Emphasis Type="Italic">Solanaceae</Emphasis> and <Emphasis Type="Italic">Rosaceae</Emphasis> families

In this study, a protocol is described for rapid preparation of an enriched, reasonably pure fraction of nuclear proteins from the leaves of tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum), potato (Solanum tuberosum) and apple (Malus domestica). The protocol gives reproducible results and can be carried out quickly in 2 hours. Tissue extracts clarified with filtration were treated with non-ionic detergent (Triton X-100) to lyse membranes of contaminating organelles. Nuclei were collected from a 60% Percoll layer of density gradient following low-speed centrifugation. Western blot analysis using antibodies to marker proteins of organelles indicated that the nuclear protein fractions were highly enriched and free or nearly free of proteins from the endoplasmic reticulum and chloroplasts.