Soil animals and ecosystem processes: How much does nutrient cycling explain?

Nieminen, Jouni K.

doi:10.1016/j.pedobi.2007.09.001

Cited by 14 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Predators in the Mutualist food web also increased plant growth despite the fact that these predators likely decrease Mutualist abundance. There is extensive support for the idea that Predators of Mutualists can increase plant growth by increasing nutrient cycling rates (Clarholm , Mikola and Setälä , Hedlund and Öhrn , Lenoir et al , Nieminen ). This ‘predator‐mediated nutrient enrichment’ has also been observed in aboveground systems and it may even explain a large portion of effects traditionally associated with trophic cascades (Sin et al ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Further, compared to other systems, symbionts, decomposers and their predators are a large and important component of soil systems (Wall and Moore ). While predators of symbionts and decomposers could be expected to decrease plant growth (Knight et al ), in soils these predators have been found to increase plant growth by increasing nutrient cycling rates (Ingham et al , Hedlund and Öhrn , Moore et al , Lenoir et al , Nieminen ). These conditions and mechanisms along with the fact that several experiments and reviews have failed to find trophic cascades in soils have led soil ecologists to believe that trophic cascades are not important in these systems (Polis and Strong , Mikola and Setälä , Bradford et al , Sackett et al ).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While many studies have examined trophic interactions among soil organisms (Clarholm , Mikola and Setälä , Hedlund and Öhrn , Lenoir et al , Nieminen , Schneider et al ), evidence for cascading trophic effects on plant growth outside of species‐specific examples are still lacking (Sackett et al ). Here we use meta‐analysis to explore the literature for general patterns of trophic dynamics in both decomposer‐based and pest‐based soil trophic pathways.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Most soil trophic guilds increase plant growth: a meta‐analytical review

Kulmatiski

Anderson-Smith

Beard

et al. 2014

Oikos

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Trophic cascades are important drivers of plant and animal abundances in aquatic and aboveground systems, but in soils trophic cascades have been thought to be of limited importance due to omnivory and other factors. Here we use a metaanalysis of 215 studies with 1526 experiments that measured plant growth responses to additions or removals of soil organisms to test how different soil trophic levels affect plant growth. Consistent with the trophic cascade hypothesis, we found that herbivores and plant pathogens (henceforth pests) decreased plant growth and that predators of pests increased plant growth. The magnitude of this trophic cascade was similar to that reported for aboveground systems. In contrast, we did not find evidence for trophic cascades in decomposer-and symbiont-based (henceforth mutualist) food chains. In these food chains, mutualists increased plant growth and predators of mutualists also increased plant growth, presumably by increasing nutrient cycling rates. Therefore, mutualists, predators of mutualists and predators of pests all increased plant growth. Further, experiments that added multiple organisms from different trophic levels also increased plant growth. As a result, across the dataset, soil organisms increased plant growth 29% and non-pest soil organisms increased plant growth 46%. Omnivory has traditionally been thought to confound soil trophic dynamics, but here we suggest that omnivory allows for a simplified perspective of soil food webs -one in which most soil organisms increase plant growth by preying on pests or increasing nutrient cycling rates. An implication of this perspective is that processes that decrease soil organism abundance (e.g. soil tillage) are likely to decrease aboveground productivity.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Most soil trophic guilds increase plant growth: a meta‐analytical review

Kulmatiski

Anderson-Smith

Beard

et al. 2014

Oikos

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“…Finally, rhizodeposition fosters microorganisms and the associated bacterial channel, the dominant pathway in arable soils [33]. Taken together, nematodes are widely involved in ecosystem-level processes such as soil energy flow and nutrient cycling (e.g., [34,35]).…”

Section: Nematodes In Soil Food Websmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soil Nematodes as a Means of Conservation of Soil Predatory Mites for Biocontrol

2022

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Numerous lab and field studies have reported the potential of soil predatory mites for the biological control of plant-parasitic nematodes and arthropods pests. Most of these studies have utilized biocontrol agents in augmentative releases, essentially controlling the pest with the released predators. While this may be a valid approach, we hypothesize that conservation of soil mite predators with available, suitable, and accessible free-living nematodes as prey, will provide better agricultural ecosystem performance and long-range sustainability. In this manuscript, we review the relevant studies on soil predatory mite–nematode interactions and highlight their potential for conservation biological control of soil-borne pests. Additionally, we emphasize the importance of implementing environmentally sound soil management practices for the sustainability and conservation of functional soil food webs.

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“…Soil fauna have the potential to affect ecosystem processes not only directly by consuming their respective food populations and excreting nutrients, but they may also have indirect, possibly non-trophic, and sometimes counterintuitive effects on microbes (Lavelle, 2000;Hätten-schwiler et al, 2005;Nieminen, 2008a). For example, a nematicide treatment decreased fungal biomass and increased nitrogen (N) concentrations in a fungal- * E-mail: jouni.nieminen@cc.jyu.fi dominated forest ecosystem (Ingham et al, 1989).…”

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confidence: 99%

Modelling the interactions of soil microbes and nematodes

Nieminen

2009

Nematol

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Six different soil food webs, assembled from a bacterium, a bacterial-feeding nematode, a fungus and a fungal-feeding nematode, were established in replicated laboratory microcosms. Glucose was supplied as the sole carbon source for the microbes. Biomasses of the organisms and the concentration of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) were measured ten times during 20 weeks. A discrete dynamic model based on the material flow between system components was fitted to the experimental data. Bacterial-based food chains were largely inactive in the absence of fungi, but mutual facilitation was observed in the systems with both fungus and bacterium. The population dynamics of a fungal-feeding nematode was adequately described by the models, but the model failed to describe DOC dynamics. The quality of fungal biomass appeared to be a key parameter in the system. Model performance was improved by letting fungal parameters vary with time and food web structure. Because fungal dynamics could not be explained by a trophic-dynamic model with rigid parameters, it is suggested that non-trophic effects of fungal-feeding nematodes on fungi may be more important in microcosms.

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Soil animals and ecosystem processes: How much does nutrient cycling explain?

Cited by 14 publications

References 26 publications

Most soil trophic guilds increase plant growth: a meta‐analytical review

Most soil trophic guilds increase plant growth: a meta‐analytical review

Soil Nematodes as a Means of Conservation of Soil Predatory Mites for Biocontrol

Modelling the interactions of soil microbes and nematodes

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