Trophic level and basal resource use of soil animals are hardly affected by local plant associations in abandoned arable land.

ABSTRACT: Plants provide resources and shape the habitat of soil organisms thereby affecting the composition and functioning of soil communities. Effects of plants on soil communities are largely taxon-dependent, but how different functional groups of herbaceous plants affect trophic niches of individual animal species in soil needs further investigation. Here, we studied the use of basal resources and trophic levels of dominating soil meso- and macrofauna using stable isotope ratios of carbon and nitrogen in arable fallow systems 3 and 14-16 years after abandonment. Animals were sampled from the rhizosphere of three plant species of different functional groups: a legume (Medicaco sativa), a nonlegume herb (Taraxacum officinale), and a grass (Bromus sterilis). We found virtually

SUBMITTER: Salamon JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7417231 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature