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Carbon fluxes in soil food webs of increasing complexity revealed by C labelling and C natural abundance |
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| Authors: | Andrea Ruf Yakov Kuzyakov |
| Institution: | a University of Bremen, UFT, Ecology Department, Leobenerstr., D-28334 Bremen, Germany b Institute of Landscape Matter Dynamics, Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape and Land Use Research, Müncheberg, D-15374, Germany c State Pedagogical University of Irkutsk, Department of Biology, 664011, Irkutsk, Russia |
| Abstract: | Soil food webs are mainly based on three primary carbon (C) sources: root exudates, litter, and recalcitrant soil organic matter (SOM). These C sources vary in their availability and accessibility to soil organisms, which could lead to different pathways in soil food webs. The presence of three C isotopes (12C, 13C and 14C) offers an unique opportunity to investigate all three C sources simultaneously. In a microcosm experiment we studied the effect of food web complexity on the utilization of the three carbon sources. We choose an incomplete three factorial design with (i) living plants, (ii) litter and (iii) food web complexity. The most complex food web consisted of autochthonous microorganisms, nematodes, collembola, predatory mites, endogeic and anecic earthworms. We traced C from all three sources in soil, in CO2 efflux and in individual organism groups by using maize grown on soil developed under C3 vegetation and application of 14C labelled ryegrass shoots as a litter layer. The presence of living plants had a much greater effect on C pathways than food web complexity. Litter decomposition, measured as 14CO2 efflux, was decreased in the presence of living plants from 71% to 33%. However, living plants increased the incorporation of litter C into microbial biomass and arrested carbon in the litter layer and in the upper soil layer. The only significant effect of food web complexity was on the litter C distribution in the soil layers. In treatments with fungivorous microarthropods (Collembola) the incorporation of litter carbon into mineral soil was reduced. Root exudates as C source were passed through rhizosphere microorganisms to the predator level (at least to the third trophic level). We conclude that living plants strongly affected C flows, directly by being a source of additional C, and indirectly by modifying the existing C flows within the food web including CO2 efflux from the soil and litter decomposition. |
| Keywords: | Carbon cycling Isotopic markers Microbial respiration Microbial biomass Soil fauna Litter decomposition Collembola Mites Earthworms CO2 partitioning 14C labelling 13C natural abundance Food webs |
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