Effects of Nesting Cormorants (Phalacrocorax carbo) on Soil Chemistry, Microbial Communities and Soil Fauna
Tóm tắt
Seabirds act as vectors transporting marine nutrients to land by feeding on fish while nesting and roosting on islands. By depositing large amounts of nutrient-rich guano on their nesting islands they strongly affect island soils, vegetation and consumers. However, few studies have investigated how nesting seabirds affect soil communities. In this study, we investigated how cormorant nesting colonies affect soil chemistry, soil microbes and soil and litter fauna on their nesting islands in the Stockholm archipelago, Sweden. We found that cormorant colonies strongly increase organic soil N and P concentrations, and the effect is stronger close to cormorant nests. Microbial communities were studied by extracting phospholipid fatty acids (PLFA) from the soil. The total amounts of PLFA and the amount of PLFA indicating bacterial biomass were lower on active cormorant islands than on reference islands. Furthermore, PLFA structure and thus microbial community structure differed between cormorant and reference islands. Among ten investigated soil and litter arthropod groups three groups (Thysanoptera, Araneae and Oribatida) showed lower densities and one group (Astigmata) showed higher densities in soils on active cormorant than on reference islands. Some arthropod groups showed strong spatial variation on the cormorant islands. Astigmata, Mesostigmata and Diptera showed higher densities in soil samples close to cormorant nests, whereas Oribatida, Collembola and Hemiptera showed lower densities in litter samples close to cormorant nests than in samples taken 3–20 m away from nests. Overall, the cormorant colonies strongly affected soil ecosystems of their nesting islands, but causal correlations between arthropod densities and soil factors were difficult to reveal. One likely reason may be that nesting cormorant islands are very heterogeneous habitats showing large spatial variation in both soil properties as well as fauna densities.
Tài liệu tham khảo
Behan-Pelletier VM. 1999. Oribatid mite biodiversity in agroecosystems: role for bioindication. Agric Ecosyst Environ 74:411–23.
Birkhofer K, Schoning I, Alt F, Herold N, Klarner B, Maraun M, Marhan S, Oelmann Y, Wubet T, Yurkov A, Begerow D, Berner D, Buscot F, Daniel R, Diekötter T, Ehnes RB, Erdmann G, Fischer C, Foesel B, Groh J, Gutknecht J, Kandeler E, Lang C, Lohaus G, Meyer A, Nacke H, Nather A, Overmann J, Polle A, Pollierer MM, Scheu S, Schloter M, Schulze ED, Schulze W, Weinert J, Weisser WW, Wolters V, Schrumpf M. 2012. General relationships between abiotic soil properties and soil biota across spatial scales and different land-use types. PLoS One 7:e43292.
Börjesson G, Menichetti L, Kirchmann H, Kätterer T. 2012. Soil microbial community structure affected by 53 years of nitrogen fertilisation and different organic amendments. Biol Fertil Soils 48:245–57.
Ellis JC, Farina JM, Witman JD. 2006. Nutrient transfer from sea to land: the case of gulls and cormorants in the Gulf of Maine. J Anim Ecol 75:565–74.
Frostegård A, Bååth E. 1996. The use of phospholipid fatty acid analysis to estimate bacterial and fungal biomass in soil. Biol Fertil Soils 22:59–65.
Frostegård A, Bååth E, Tunlid A. 1993. Shifts in the structure of soil microbial communities in limed forests as revealed by phospholipid fatty-acid analysis. Soil Biol Biochem 25:723–30.
Frostegård A, Petersen SO, Bååth E, Nielsen TH. 1997. Dynamics of a microbial community associated with manure hot spots as revealed by phospholipid fatty acid analyses. Appl Environ Microbiol 63:2224–31.
Fukami T, Wardle DA, Bellingham PJ, Mulder CPH, Towns DR, Yeates GW, Bonner KI, Durrett MS, Grant-Hoffman MN, Williamson WM. 2006. Above- and below-ground impacts of introduced predators in seabird-dominated island ecosystems. Ecol Lett 9:1299–307.
Hasegawa M. 2001. The relationship between the organic matter composition of a forest floor and the structure of a soil arthropod community. Eur J Soil Biol 37:281–4.
Hjertstrand G. 2014. Skarvåret 2013 [in Swedish]. Anonymous. Levande skärgårdsnatur 2014. Skärgårdsstiftelsen. pp 16–18.
Jerling L. 1999. Sea shores. Acta Phytogeo Suec 84:169–85.
Koehler HH. 1999. Predatory mites (Gamasina, Mesostigmata). Agric Ecosyst Environ 74:395–410.
Kolb G, Palmborg C, Hambäck PA. 2013a. Ecological stoichiometry and density responses of plant-arthropod communities on cormorant nesting islands. PLoS One 8:e61772.
Kolb GS, Jerling L, Essenberg C, Palmborg C, Hambäck PA. 2012. The impact of nesting cormorants on plant and arthropod diversity. Ecography 35:726–40.
Kolb GS, Jerling L, Hambäck PA. 2010. The impact of cormorants on plant-arthropod food webs on their nesting islands. Ecosystems 13:353–66.
Kolb GS, Palmborg C, Hambäck PA. 2013b. Ecological stoichiometry and density responses of plant-arthropod communities on cormorant nesting islands. PLoS One 8:e61772.
Laiho R, Silvan N, Carcamo H, Vasander H. 2001. Effects of water level and nutrients on spatial distribution of soil mesofauna in peatlands drained for forestry in Finland. Appl Soil Ecol 16:1–9.
Mulder C, Elser JJ. 2009. Soil acidity, ecological stoichiometry and allometric scaling in grassland food webs. Global Change Biol 15:2730–8.
Mulder C, Vonk JA, Den Hollander HA, Hendriks AJ, Breure AM. 2011a. How allometric scaling relates to soil abiotics. Oikos 120:529–36.
Mulder CPH, Jones HP, Kameda K, Palmborg C, Schmidt S, Ellis JC, Orrock JL, Wait DA, Wardle DA, Yang L, Young H, Croll DA, Vidal E. 2011b. Impacts of seabirds on plant soil properties. In: Mulder CPH, Anderson WB, Towns DR, Bellingham PJ, Eds. Seabird islands: ecology, invasion and restoration. Oxford: OUP. p 135–76.
Nilsson LO, Bååth E, Falkengren-Grerup U, Wallander H. 2007. Growth of ectomycorrhizal mycelia and composition of soil microbial communities in oak forest soils along a nitrogen deposition gradient. Oecologia (Heidelb) 153:375–84.
Nordby HE, Nemec S, Nagy S. 1981. Fatty-acids and sterols associated with citrus root mycorrhizae. J Agric Food Chem 29:396–401.
Oksanen J, Guillaume Blanchet F, Kindt R, Legendre P, Minchin PR, O’Hara RB, Simpson GL, Solymos P, Stevens MHH, Wagner H. 2013. Vegan: community ecology package. R package version 2.0-10.
Olsen SR, Sommers LE. 1982. Phosphorous. In: Page AL, Miller RH, Keeney DR, Eds. Methods of soil analysis, part 2, chemical and mineralogical properties. Madison: ASA and SSSA. p 403–30.
Osono T, Hobara S, Fujiwara S, Koba K, Kameda K. 2002. Abundance, diversity, and species composition of fungal communities in a temperate forest affected by excreta of the Great Cormorant Phalacrocorax carbo. Soil Biol Biochem 34:1537–47.
Osono T, Hobara S, Koba K, Kameda K. 2006. Reduction of fungal growth and lignin decomposition in needle litter by avian excreta. Soil Biol Biochem 38:1623–30.
Proctor H, Owens I. 2000. Mites and birds: diversity, parasitism and coevolution. Trends Ecol Evol 15:358–64.
Rousk J, Brookes PC, Bååth E. 2010. The microbial PLFA composition as affected by pH in an arable soil. Soil Biol Biochem 42:516–520.
Schon NL, Mackay AD, Gray RAJ, Minor MA. 2011. Influence of phosphorus inputs and sheep treading on soil macrofauna and mesofauna in hill pastures. N Z J Agric Res 54:83–96.
Tecator F. 1984. Application Note, AN 50/84.
Tecator F. 1992. Application Sub Note, ASN 50-01/92.
Towns DR, Wardle DA, Mulder CPH, Yeates GW, Fitzgerald BM, Parrish GR, Bellingham PJ, Bonner KI. 2009. Predation of seabirds by invasive rats: multiple indirect consequences for invertebrate communities. Oikos 118:420–30.
Treseder KK. 2008. Nitrogen additions and microbial biomass: a meta-analysis of ecosystem studies. Ecol Lett 11:1111–20.
Wardle DA, Bellingham PJ, Bonner KI, Mulder CPH. 2009. Indirect effects of invasive predators on litter decomposition and nutrient resorption on seabird-dominated islands. Ecology 90:452–64.
Wright DG, van der Wal R, Wanless S, Bardgett RD. 2010. The influence of seabird nutrient enrichment and grazing on the structure and function of island soil food webs. Soil Biol Biochem 42:592–600.
Zmudczynska K, Olejniczak I, Zwolicki A, Iliszko L, Convey P, Stempniewicz L. 2012. Influence of allochtonous nutrients delivered by colonial seabirds on soil collembolan communities on Spitsbergen. Polar Biol 35:1233–45.