The large range of body-mass values of soil organisms provides a tool to assess the ecological organization of soil communities. The goal of this paper is to identify graphical and quantitative indicators of soil community composition and ecosystem functioning, and to illustrate their application to real soil food webs. The relationships between log-transformed mass and abundance of soil organisms in 20 Dutch meadows and heathlands were investigated. Using principles of allometry, maximal use can be made of ecological theory to build and explain food webs. The aggregate contribution of small invertebrates such as nematodes to the entire community is high under low soil phosphorus content and causes shifts in the mass-abundance relationships and in the trophic structures. We show for the first time that the average of the trophic link lengths is a reliable predictor for assessing soil fertility responses. Ordered trophic link pairs suggest a self-organizing structure of food webs according to resource availability and can predict environmental shifts in ecologically meaningful ways.
The large range of body-mass values of soil orgapan class="Chemical">nisms provides a tool to assess the ecological organization of soil communities. The goal of this paper is to identify graphical and quantitative indicators of soil community composition and ecosystem functioning, and to illustrate their application to real soil food webs. The relationships between log-transformed mass and abundance of soil organisms in 20 Dutch meadows and heathlands were investigated. Using principles of allometry, maximal use can be made of ecological theory to build and explain food webs. The aggregate contribution of small invertebrates such as nematodes to the entire community is high under low soil n class="Chemical">phosphorus contenpan>t anpan>d causes shifts in the mass-abundanpan>ce relationships anpan>d in the trophic structures. We show for the first time that the average of the trophic link lenpan>gths is a reliable predictor for assessing soil fertility responses. Ordered trophic link pairs suggest a self-organpan>izing structure of food webs according to resource availability anpan>d canpan> predict enpan>vironmenpan>tal shifts in ecologically meanpan>ingful ways.
Authors: David A Wardle; Richard D Bardgett; John N Klironomos; Heikki Setälä; Wim H van der Putten; Diana H Wall Journal: Science Date: 2004-06-11 Impact factor: 47.728
Authors: Sandra Díaz; Sandra Lavorel; Francesco de Bello; Fabien Quétier; Karl Grigulis; T Matthew Robson Journal: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Date: 2007-12-19 Impact factor: 11.205
Authors: Just Cebrian; Jonathan B Shurin; Elizabeth T Borer; Bradley J Cardinale; Jacqueline T Ngai; Melinda D Smith; William F Fagan Journal: PLoS One Date: 2009-03-20 Impact factor: 3.240