Community level lipid profiling of consumers as a tool for soil food web diagnostics

Kühn, Jakob; Richter, Andreas; Kahl, Tiemo; Bauhus, Jürgen; Schöning, Ingo; Rueß, Liliane

doi:10.1111/2041-210x.12966

Cited by 17 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 55 publications

(88 reference statements)

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“…Proportions of EPA in total fatty acids reported are 3.5% for free-living soil nematodes (Kühn et al, 2018) and up to 17.4% for yeast feed Collembola (Chamberlain and Black, 2005). In particular, earthworms (their body, gut and burrow lining) are a rich source for LC-ω3PUFA, with EPA being 7.5 times higher than in bulk soil (Sampredo et al, 2006).…”

Section: ω3pufa-aquatic Vs Terrestrial Food Webs and Interlinksmentioning

confidence: 98%

Essential Biomolecules in Food Webs

Rueß

Müller-Navarra

2019

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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We here review the ecological role of essential nutritional biomolecules [fatty acids (FA), amino acids (AA), sterols, vitamins] in aquatic and terrestrial food webs, encompassing the forces behind their environmental distribution. Across ecosystems, mutualistic relationships frequently ensure exchanges of vitamins between producer and demander, especially between B 12 and other B vitamins as well as the AA methionine. In contrast, FA, sterols and most AA are transferred up the food chain via classical predatorprey interactions, and therefore have good biomarker potential for trophic interactions. As biomass-flow depends on the absolute amounts of potential limiting resources, considering solely the relative share in the respective biochemical group may underor overestimate the availability to consumers. Moreover, if not accounted for, "hidden" trophic channels, such as gut symbionts as well as metabolic conversion of precursor molecules, can hamper food web analyses. Fundamental differences exist between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems: Vitamin B 12 produced by ammonium oxidizing Archaea is essential to many aquatic algae, whereas terrestrial plants escaped this dependency by using B 12 independent enzymes. Long-chain ω3 polyunsaturated FA (LC-ω3PUFA) in aquatic systems mainly originate from planktonic algae, while in terrestrial systems, belowground invertebrates can well be a source, also supporting aboveground biota. Interlinks from terrestrial to aquatic ecosystems are of a biochemically totally different nature than vice versa. While biomass rich in proteins and LC-ω3PUFA is transferred to land, e.g., by trophic relationships, the link from terrestrial to aquatic ecosystems provides recalcitrant plant carbon, mainly devoid of essential nutrients, fuelling detrital food chains. Recent global changes influence food webs via altered input and transfer of essential biomolecules, but separating the effects of nutrients, CO 2 , and warming is not trivial. Current evolutionary concepts (e.g., Black Queen, relaxed selection) considering the costs of metabolic production partly explain food web dynamics, especially for vitamins, whereas adaptations to potential oxidative stress seem to be more important for LC-PUFA. Overall, the provision with essential biomolecules is precious for both heterotrophs and auxotrophs. These nutritional valuable molecules often are kept unaltered in consumer metabolism, including their stable isotope composition, offering a great advantage for their use as trophic markers.

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Section: ω3pufa-aquatic Vs Terrestrial Food Webs and Interlinksmentioning

confidence: 98%

Essential Biomolecules in Food Webs

Rueß

Müller-Navarra

2019

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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“…For soil food web, it has been shown that fatty acids (FAs) are transferred from microorganisms to microbivorous invertebrates to higher order consumers (Chamberlain et al, 2005;Ruess et al, 2002;Ruess, Schütz, et al, 2005;Ruess, Tiunov, et al, 2005) as well as from microorganisms and plants to detritivores and their predators (Pollierer, Scheu, & Haubert, 2010). Thus, lipid profiles of consumers may serve as tool for soil food web diagnostics (Kühn et al, 2018). To-date, however, virtually no studies investigated lipid profiles of soil fauna including both meso-and macrofauna in the same community.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conversion of rainforest to oil palm and rubber plantations alters energy channels in soil food webs

Susanti

Pollierer

Widyastuti

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

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In the last decades, lowland tropical rainforest has been converted in large into plantation systems. Despite the evident changes above ground, the effect of rainforest conversion on the channeling of energy in soil food webs was not studied. Here, we investigated community‐level neutral lipid fatty acid profiles in dominant soil fauna to track energy channels in rainforest, rubber, and oil palm plantations in Sumatra, Indonesia. Abundant macrofauna including Araneae, Chilopoda, and Diplopoda contained high amounts of plant and fungal biomarker fatty acids (FAs). Lumbricina had the lowest amount of plant, but the highest amount of animal‐synthesized C20 polyunsaturated FAs as compared to other soil taxa. Mesofauna detritivores (Collembola and Oribatida) contained high amounts of algal biomarker FAs. The differences in FA profiles between taxa were evident if data were analyzed across land‐use systems, suggesting that soil fauna of different size (macro‐ and mesofauna) are associated with different energy channels. Despite that, rainforest conversion changed the biomarker FA composition of soil fauna at the community level. Conversion of rainforest into oil palm plantations enhanced the plant energy channel in soil food webs and reduced the bacterial energy channel; conversion into rubber plantations reduced the AMF‐based energy channel. The changes in energy distribution within soil food webs may have significant implications for the functioning of tropical ecosystems and their response to environmental changes. At present, these responses are hard to predict considering the poor knowledge on structure and functioning of tropical soil food webs.

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“…These studies were mostly qualitative or semiquantitative, considering fatty acid relative abundance instead of absolute values. As a major component in all organisms, lipids allow the following of carbon flux across trophic levels [8] or to uncover shifts in structure and resources of entire food webs [9]. Therefore, in an ecological context the development of quantitative approaches, i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Shifting systems: prerequisites for the application of quantitative fatty acid signature analysis in soil food webs

Kühn

Tobias

Jähngen

et al. 2020

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Quantitative fatty acid signature analysis (QFASA) is widely used to investigate trophic interactions in marine ecosystems, as nutritionally important ω 3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids at the food web base allow tracing of their trophic transfer in the food chain. By contrast, the basal resources in soil food webs comprise a wider array of trophic markers, including branched-chain, cyclopropane as well as several mono- and polyunsaturated fatty acids. These diverse markers allow distinguishing between the three dominant soil carbon and energy channels, the root, bacterial and fungal pathway. QFASA has not been applied yet to soil ecosystems owing to the lack of a priori data to fit the model. The present work investigates the transfer of absolute and relative trophic marker fatty acids into Collembola as dominant representatives of the soil mesofauna. Three different species were fed on a variety of single diets characteristic for the green and brown food chain. Calibration coefficients were calculated and diet estimation trials for mixed diet set-ups were performed, using a library comprising 50 different resources. However, estimation of Collembola diet was only partially successful, identifying the main components, but not the correct relative proportions. Adjustments by fat content or diet group exclusion did not improve the results. Nonetheless, this work provides, to our knowledge, a first comprehensive dataset to translate the application of QFASA from marine to soil ecosystems. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The next horizons for lipids as ‘trophic biomarkers’: evidence and significance of consumer modification of dietary fatty acids’.

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Community level lipid profiling of consumers as a tool for soil food web diagnostics

Cited by 17 publications

References 55 publications

Essential Biomolecules in Food Webs

Essential Biomolecules in Food Webs

Conversion of rainforest to oil palm and rubber plantations alters energy channels in soil food webs

Shifting systems: prerequisites for the application of quantitative fatty acid signature analysis in soil food webs

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