Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1893/25930
Appears in Collections:Biological and Environmental Sciences Journal Articles
Peer Review Status: Refereed
Title: Litter-type specific microbial responses to the transformation of leaf litter into millipede feces
Author(s): Joly, Francois-Xavier
Coulis, Mathieu
Gerard, Aurelien
Fromin, Nathalie
Hattenschwiler, Stephan
Contact Email: francois-xavier.joly1@stir.ac.uk
Keywords: Soil fauna
Glomeris marginata
Litter decomposition
Litter quality
Microbial decomposers
Issue Date: Jul-2015
Date Deposited: 29-Sep-2017
Citation: Joly F, Coulis M, Gerard A, Fromin N & Hattenschwiler S (2015) Litter-type specific microbial responses to the transformation of leaf litter into millipede feces. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 86, pp. 17-23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2015.03.014
Abstract: The transformation of leaf litter into fecal pellets by saprophagous macroarthropods has long been suggested to play an important role in litter decomposition by altering microbial processes. However, conflicting results are reported in the literature, and it is currently not clear to what extent varying initial litter quality contributes to distinct microbial responses to the transformation of litter into feces. Here we performed a screening test using a wide range of distinct leaf litter from 26 tree species. We fed these litters to the macroarthropod species i during one week under controlled conditions, and compared microbial responses in uningested leaf litter with that of feces produced from the 26 different leaf litter types. We assessed substrate induced respiration (SIR) as an integrative measure of microbial responses. We found that litter SIR was highly variable across species and well related to initial litter quality. However, variability in feces SIR was strongly reduced and only weakly related to initial litter quality. Moreover, the difference between feces and litter SIR decreased with increasing litter SIR as a result of higher microbial stimulation in litter with low associated litter SIR. Our data clearly showed that the direction and magnitude of microbial stimulation in feces depend strongly on the litter type. Therefore, the consequence of litter transformation into macroarthropod fecal pellets for microbial decomposers and possibly for subsequent decomposition of feces is specific to litter species.
DOI Link: 10.1016/j.soilbio.2015.03.014
Rights: The publisher does not allow this work to be made publicly available in this Repository. Please use the Request a Copy feature at the foot of the Repository record to request a copy directly from the author. You can only request a copy if you wish to use this work for your own research or private study.
Licence URL(s): http://www.rioxx.net/licenses/under-embargo-all-rights-reserved

Files in This Item:
File Description SizeFormat 
2015_Joly_et_al_Soil Biology Biochemistry.pdfFulltext - Published Version651.11 kBAdobe PDFUnder Permanent Embargo    Request a copy

Note: If any of the files in this item are currently embargoed, you can request a copy directly from the author by clicking the padlock icon above. However, this facility is dependent on the depositor still being contactable at their original email address.



This item is protected by original copyright



Items in the Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.

The metadata of the records in the Repository are available under the CC0 public domain dedication: No Rights Reserved https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/

If you believe that any material held in STORRE infringes copyright, please contact library@stir.ac.uk providing details and we will remove the Work from public display in STORRE and investigate your claim.