Genetic variation within a dominant shrub structures green and brown community assemblages.

Two rising challenges in ecology are understanding the linkages between above- and belowground components of terrestrial ecosystems and connecting genes to their ecological consequences. Here, we blend these emerging perspectives using a long-term common-garden experiment in a coastal dune ecosystem, whose dominant shrub species, Baccharis pilularis, exists as erect or prostrate architectural morphotypes. We explored variation in green (foliage-based) and brown (detritus-based) community assemblages, local ecosystem processes, and understory microclimate between the two morphs. Prostrate morphs supported more individuals, species, and different compositions of foliage arthropods, litter microarthropods, and soil bacteria than erect morphs. The magnitude of community compositional differences was maintained from crown to litter to soil. Despite showing strikingly similar responses, green and brown assemblages were associated with different underlying mechanisms. Differences in estimated shrub biomass best explained variation in the green assemblage, while understory abiotic conditions accounted for variation in the brown assemblage. Prostrate morphs produced more biomass and litter, which corresponded with their strong lateral growth in a windy environment. Compared to erect morphs, the denser canopy and thicker litter layer of prostrate morphs helped create more humid understory conditions. As a result, decomposition rates were higher under prostrate shrubs, despite prostrate litter being of poorer quality. Together, our results support the hypothesis that intraspecific genetic variation in primary producers is a key mediator of above- and belowground linkages, and that integrating the two perspectives can lead to new insights into how terrestrial communities are linked with ecosystem pools and processes.

Radish introduction affects soil biota and has a positive impact on the growth of a native plant.

Introduced plants may out-compete natives by belowground allelopathic effects on soil communities including the symbionts of native plants. We tested for an allelopathic effect of an introduced crucifer, Raphanus sativus, on a common neighboring legume, Lupinus nanus, on the legume's rhizobium affiliates, and on the broader soil community. In both field observations and a greenhouse experiment, we found that R. sativus decreased the density of nodules on L. nanus roots. However, in the greenhouse experiment, R. sativus soils only decreased the density of small, likely non-beneficial rhizobium nodules. In the same experiment, R. sativus soils decreased fungivorous nematode abundance, though there was no effect of R. sativus introduction on fungal density. In the greenhouse experiment, R. sativus soils had a net positive effect on L. nanus biomass. One explanation of this effect is that R. sativus introduction might alter the mutualistic/parasitic relationship between L. nanus and its rhizobial associates with a net benefit to L. nanus. Our results suggest that introduced brassicas can quickly alter belowground communities, but that the net effect of this on neighboring plants is not necessarily negative.

Facilitation and predation structure a grassland detrital food web: the responses of soil nematodes to isopod processing of litter.

1. Detritus can support successive consumers, whose interactions may be structured by changes in the condition of their shared resource. One model of such species interactions is a processing chain, in which consumers feeding on the resource in a less processed state change the resource condition for subsequent consumers. 2. In a series of experiments, the hypothesis was tested that a common detritivore, the terrestrial isopod Porcellio scaber, affects soil nematodes through the processing of plant litter. Different detrital resources were added to soil from a California coastal prairie in order to simulate litter processing by the detritivore. Treatments that included only whole grass litter corresponded to detrital food webs lacking detritivores, while treatments that included mixtures of P. scaber faeces and grass litter corresponded to different densities or feeding rates of P. scaber. 3. Simulated litter processing by P. scaber increased the abundance of bacterivorous nematodes by between 32% and 202% after 24-44 days in laboratory experiments, but had no effect on fungivorous or predaceous nematodes. 4. In a subsequent field experiment, however, fungivorous nematodes were suppressed by isopod litter processing while bacterivores showed no response. Instead, P. scaber processing of litter increased the abundance of predaceous nematodes in the field experiment by 176%. 5. When simulated litter processing of litter was crossed in laboratory experiments with predaceous nematode addition (comparable to the response of predators in the field experiment), the abundance of bacterivores was increased by isopod processing of litter (by an average of 122%), but suppressed by elevated densities of predaceous nematodes (by an average of 41%). 6. This suggests that litter processing by P. scaber facilitates the bacterial channel of the soil food web, but that predaceous nematodes suppress the response of bacterivores in the field. Processing chain interactions may, therefore, be important in understanding the relative importance of bacterial and fungal channels in the soil food web, while top-down effects of predators determine the resulting changes in population abundance and biomass.

What can we learn from resource pulses?

An increasing number of studies in a wide range of natural systems have investigated how pulses of resource availability influence ecological processes at individual, population, and community levels. Taken together, these studies suggest that some common processes may underlie pulsed resource dynamics in a wide diversity of systems. Developing a common framework of terms and concepts for the study of resource pulses may facilitate greater synthesis among these apparently disparate systems. Here, we propose a general definition of the resource pulse concept, outline some common patterns in the causes and consequences of resource pulses, and suggest a few key questions for future investigations. We define resource pulses as episodes of increased resource availability in space and time that combine low frequency (rarity), large magnitude (intensity), and short duration (brevity), and emphasize the importance of considering resource pulses at spatial and temporal scales relevant to specific resource-onsumer interactions. Although resource pulses are uncommon events for consumers in specific systems, our review of the existing literature suggests that pulsed resource dynamics are actually widespread phenomena in nature. Resource pulses often result from climatic and environmental factors, processes of spatiotemporal accumulation and release, outbreak population dynamics, or a combination of these factors. These events can affect life history traits and behavior at the level of individual consumers, numerical responses at the population level, and indirect effects at the community level. Consumers show strategies for utilizing ephemeral resources opportunistically, reducing resource variability by averaging over larger spatial scales, and tolerating extended interpulse periods of reduced resource availability. Resource pulses can also create persistent effects in communities through several mechanisms. We suggest that the study of resource pulses provides opportunities to understand the dynamics of many specific systems, and may also contribute to broader ecological questions at individual, population, and community levels.

Response of nematode-trapping fungi to organic substrates in a coastal grassland soil.

To understand why Arthrobotrys oligospora and other nematode-trapping fungi are common and sometimes abundant in the coastal grassland soils of the Bodega Marine Reserve (BMR, Sonoma County, CA), we examined how resident trapping fungi responded to the addition of eight organic substrates (lupine leaves, grass leaves, dead isopods, dead moth larvae, isopod faeces, deer faeces, shrimp shells, and powdered chitin). We were especially interested in the effects of dead isopods because isopods are abundant at BMR and because previous studies had documented strong responses of A. oligospora to other arthropods (dead moth larvae). Soil from BMR was packed into vials (40 g dry mass equivalent per vial with water potential at -230 kPa and bulk density at 0.9 gcm(-3)), and one substrate or no substrate was added to the soil surface. After 30 d at 20 degrees C, trapping fungi were quantified by dilution plating and most probable number procedures. The response of A. oligospora was inversely related to substrate carbon:nitrogen (C:N) ratio: substrates with low C:N ratios (dead isopods, lupine leaves, dead moth larvae) usually caused large increases in A. oligospora whereas those with higher C:N ratios (isopod faeces, deer faeces, grass leaves) did not. An exception was chitin powder, which had a low C:N ratio, but which did not cause A. oligospora to proliferate. Responses of A. oligospora were directly related to the quantity of nitrogen added with each substrate, and those substrates that caused large increases in resident nematodes usually caused large increases in A. oligospora. Other trapping fungi did not respond as strongly as A. oligospora.

A basal aquatic-terrestrial trophic link in rivers: algal subsidies via shore-dwelling grasshoppers.

Rivers provide important resources for riparian consumers, especially in arid or seasonally arid biomes. Pygmy grasshoppers (Paratettix aztecus and P. mexicanus; Tetrigidae) graze river algae stranded along shorelines of the South Fork Eel River in northern California (39°44'N, 123°39'W) as the river recedes during the summer drought. Densities of tetrigids during the mid to late summer were highest (1 individual/m2 in July) within 1 m of the river margin, and declined to near zero at 4 m from the margin, especially during peak temperatures in the afternoon. These observations suggested that the distribution of tetrigids was determined by the availability of algae, water, or both. We manipulated the presence/absence of water and beached algae (Cladophora glomerata) in a 2×2 factorial design. All treatments were positioned 2 m upslope from the river's edge (about 30 cm above the water table), where the cobble bar was naturally dry and devoid of algae and densities of tetrigids were lower than at the river margin (0.4 individuals/m2 in July). Tetrigids responded only to the wet Cladophora treatment, which had 30× higher densities than other treatments. Stable isotopic signatures (δ13C) of tetrigids (-19.7‰) collected from the same cobble bars were more similar to those of epilithic algae (-20.4‰) than terrestrial plants (-28.2‰), and higher than those of acridid grasshoppers (-27.9‰) from the same habitats. Mixing models suggest that 88-100% of the C in tetrigid grasshoppers at our study site is derived from riverine algae. A preliminary analysis suggests that tetrigids ingested sufficient quantities of algae to easily meet their energetic demands during the summer. This study supports the idea that algae, produced in stream systems, can determine the distribution and relative abundance of a common terrestrial scavenger and provide an additional pathway for energy exchange between rivers and riparian food webs.