Assessment of soil animal functional diversity by identifying their carbon sources with isotope tracer

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25850115
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Forest science
• Research Institution: Yokohama National University
• Principal Investigator: Fujii Saori 横浜国立大学, 環境情報研究科(研究院), 研究員 (50648045)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 土壌動物 / トビムシ / 細根 / 根浸出物 / 同位体 / ラベリング

Outline of Final Research Achievements

A series of studies on soil biodiversity-ecosystem functioning has demonstrated a higher importance of functional dissimilarity to perform belowground processes. However, large uncertainty still exists for species-specific dietary traits, which can determine the ecosystem functioning by soil animals. Collembola have traditionally been assumed to contribute to decomposition, mainly by feeding on detritus or saprotrophic fungi. To examine the collembolan utilization of living root-derived carbon (C) as other C source, we conducted a 13CO2 pulse-labeling experiment. We showed an importance of root-derived C for Collembola, which indicates that their role as litter decomposers may have been overestimated. In addition, we found interspecific differences in root-derived C utilization, which suggests that Collembola have more species-specific functional roles in soil processes against previous recognition that they are relatively redundant in terms of their belowground functions.

Free Research Field

土壌生態学