Search results for "OMAS"
showing 10 items of 1725 documents
Plant effects on the soil community: A microcosm experiment
1999
Abstract An experiment was carried out in microcosms for testing the hypothesis that a higher level of primary production should maintain a decomposer community with higher biomass and activity. Microcosms with coniferous forest humus and a diverse microbial and faunal community were divided into three sets: (1) control without plants, (2) with birch seedlings in full illumination, and (3) with birch seedlings, shaded to reduce the net primary production. During 16 weeks of incubation at +16 °C, no treatment effects were found in numbers or biomass of taxonomic or functional groups of soil organisms, nor in the system respiration in darkness. The community structure of the shaded systems di…
Distribution and seasonal dynamics of Cryptomonads in Sicilian water bodies
2003
Several species with a relevant ecological importance belong to Cryptophyta. Nevertheless, species-level identification from microscopic observations is problematic, lacking recent taxonomic keys. In this study we report our observations on distribution and seasonal dynamics of Cryptomonads in 33 Sicilian water bodies, as well as the main taxonomical problems we encountered. Species of the genera Cryptomonas and Plagioselmis are the most common in the examined water bodies. Their biomass seasonal trends usually show a peak in late winter and early spring. In advanced spring, and also in summer, due to the higher grazing pressure, the Cryptomonads biomass reaches its lowest values. Moreover,…
Understorey plant and soil responses to disturbance and increased nitrogen in boreal forests
2009
Question: How do N fertilization and disturbance affect the understorey vegetation, microbial properties and soil nutrient concentration in boreal forests? Location: Kuusamo (66°22′N; 29°18′E) and Oulu (65°02′N; 25°47′E) in northern Finland. Methods: We conducted a fully factorial experiment with three factors: site (two levels), N fertilization (four levels) and disturbance (two levels). We measured treatment effects on understorey biomass, vegetation structure, and plant, soil and microbial N and C concentrations. Results: The understorey biomass was not affected by fertilization either in the control or in the disturbance treatment. Fertilization reduced the biomass of deciduous Vacciniu…
Phytoplankton distribution along trophic gradients within and among reservoirs in Catalonia (Spain)
2008
SUMMARY 1. Longitudinal gradients in the epilimnetic waters of stratified reservoirs provide a useful database to study changing environmental conditions. The spatial distribution, assemblage structure and specific adaptations of phytoplankton assemblages can be analysed along these gradients over short time scales. 2. Four reservoirs with a similar typology, located along an altitudinal gradient in the same eco-region, were sampled along their longitudinal axes. In total, 19 sampling stations provided a trophic spectrum, ranging from oligo-mesotrophy to hypertrophy, which was quantified by calculating the trophic state index of each sampling station in the four reservoirs. 3. Several patte…
Mesocosm experiments on nutrient and fish effects on shallow lake food webs in a Mediterranean climate
2004
Summary 1. Nutrient and fish manipulations in mesocosms were carried out on food-web interactions in a Mediterranean shallow lake in south-east Spain. Nutrients controlled biomass of phytoplankton and periphyton, while zooplankton, regulated by planktivorous fish, influenced the relative percentages of the dominant phytoplankton species. 2. Phytoplankton species diversity decreased with increasing nutrient concentration and planktivorous fish density. Cyanobacteria grew well in both turbid and clear-water states. 3. Planktivorous fish increased concentrations of soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP). Larger zooplankters (mostly Ceriodaphnia and copepods) were significantly reduced when fish wer…
Responses of decomposer community to root-isolation and addition of slash
2001
Abstract We studied the causal relationships between forest harvesting and the soil decomposer community focusing on suppression of energy inputs from trees to the soil through root–mycorrhizal network and increased energy input to the soil in the form of slash left on site. We hypothesised that both of these factors would affect the decomposer community, since the soil food web has been regarded as a system in which the amount of resources controls the numbers of consumers. To study the importance of these factors without changes in microclimate, like in sunshine and shade, taking place in clear-felled areas, the experiment was performed in a mature spruce ( Picea abies (L.) Karst.) forest…
Soil carbon quality and nitrogen fertilization structure bacterial communities with predictable responses of major bacterial phyla
2014
Abstract Agricultural practices affect the soil ecosystem in multiple ways and the soil microbial communities represent an integrated and dynamic measure of soil status. Our aim was to test whether the soil bacterial community and the relative abundance of major bacterial phyla responded predictably to long-term organic amendments representing different carbon qualities (peat and straw) in combination with nitrogen fertilization levels and if certain bacterial groups were indicative of specific treatments. We hypothesized that the long-term treatments had created distinctly different ecological niches for soil bacteria, suitable for either fast-growing copiotrophic bacteria, or slow-growing…
Influence of carbon and nutrient additions on a decomposer food chain and the growth of pine seedlings in microcosms
2001
Abstract Because of N deposition plant production is becoming increasingly limited by other nutrients in boreal forests. At the same time more C is suggested to become available for below-ground food webs because of enhanced CO2 fixation. We studied the effects of carbon and nutrient addition on a fungus–nematode food chain and on the growth of mycorrhizal or nonmycorrhizal pine seedlings (Pinus sylvestris L.) in microcosms with N-rich mineral soil and a humus layer. The role of the food chain and mycorrhizal fungi for pine growth was tested in a smaller set-up. The total pine biomass was not N-limited at the scale of two experimental growing seasons. In accordance with established knowledg…
Top predators, mesopredators and their prey: interference ecosystems along bioclimatic productivity gradients
2010
1. The Mesopredator Release Hypothesis (MRH) suggests that top predator suppression of mesopredators is a key ecosystem function with cascading impacts on herbivore prey, but it remains to be shown that this top-down cascade impacts the large-scale structure of ecosystems. 2. The Exploitation Ecosystems Hypothesis (EEH) predicts that regional ecosystem structures are determined by top-down exploitation and bottom-up productivity. In contrast to MRH, EEH assumes that interference among predators has a negligible impact on the structure of ecosystems with three trophic levels. 3. We use the recolonization of a top predator in a three-level boreal ecosystem as a natural experiment to test if l…
Functional diversity of decomposer organisms in relation to primary production
1998
Abstract The term `biodiversity' is claimed to lack connections to a serious scientific background. In this work, we approached the concept of biodiversity from a functional point of view by asking: “At what level of the ecological organization (species, trophic species/feeding guilds, trophic levels etc.) should reduction in biodiversity matter to bring about visible changes in ecosystem performance?” We investigate the concepts of `functional diversity' and `ecosystem performance' in relation to feeding habits (such as fungivory, detritivory etc.) of soil fauna and plant growth. After analysing the results of a number of microcosm studies, we came into the following conclusions: (i) troph…