Stable isotope composition of microfauna supports the occurrence of biologically fixed nitrogen from cyanobacteria in desert soil food webs |
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| Institution: | 1. College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095, PR China;2. Department of Natural Resource Sciences, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, H9X 3V9, Canada;1. Institute of Soil Biology, Biology Centre Czech Academy of Sciences, ?eské Budějovice, Czech Republic;2. Centre for Polar Ecology, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, ?eské Budějovice, Czech Republic;3. Institute of Biology and Ecology, Faculty of Science, University of P. J. ?afárik, Ko?ice, Slovakia;4. Department of Botany and Zoology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic;1. Department of Ecology, School of Biology, Aristotle University, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece;2. Central Department of Zoology, Institute of Science and Technology Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur, Kathmandu, Nepal;1. State Key Laboratory of Grassland and Agro-ecosystems, School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, 222 Tianshui Road, Lanzhou, 730000, Gansu, People''s Republic of China;2. Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith, NSW, 2751, Australia;1. Key Laboratory of Agro-ecological Processes in Subtropical Region, Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changsha 410125, PR China;2. Huanjiang Observation and Research Station for Karst Ecosystems, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Huanjiang 547100, PR China;3. Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, PR China |
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| Abstract: | Biological soil crusts of the arid Southwest US are habitat for a greater diversity of microfauna than soils with absent or physically disturbed crusts. The cyanobacteria of desert soil crusts fix nitrogen biologically, but it is not known whether these cyanobacteria are consumed by microfauna and are a significant component of the soil food web. We suspect that stylet-bearing nematodes and tardigrades are the most likely microfauna to graze on cyanobacteria, so we used natural abundance stable isotopes to test whether cyanobacteria are indeed a significant component of their diet in the field. We found that stable isotope composition of microinvertebrate biomass supports the hypothesis that cyanobacteria are a potential prey item in the food chain leading up to tardigrades and dorylaim-type nematodes in desert soils, but does not support the same hypothesis for Tylenchidae in these communities. Continued development of stable isotope methods may help to refine our understanding of feeding behaviors in belowground desert soil food webs. |
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