Top-down control of soil fungal community composition by a globally distributed keystone consumer

Crowther, Thomas, Stanton, David W. G., Thomas, S. M., A'Bear, Andrew Donald, Hiscox, Jennifer, Jones, Thomas Hefin ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7874-3627, Voříšková, J., Baldrian, P. and Boddy, Lynne ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1845-6738 2013. Top-down control of soil fungal community composition by a globally distributed keystone consumer. Ecology 94 (11) , pp. 2518-2528. 10.1890/13-0197.1

Full text not available from this repository.

Abstract

The relative contribution of top-down and bottom-up processes regulating primary decomposers can influence the strength of the link between the soil animal community and ecosystem functioning. Although soil bacterial communities are regulated by bottom-up and top-down processes, the latter are considered to be less important in structuring the diversity and functioning of fungal-dominated ecosystems. Despite the huge diversity of mycophagous (fungal-feeding) soil fauna, and their potential to reverse the outcomes of competitive fungal interactions, top-down grazing effects have never been found to translate to community-level changes. We constructed soil mesocosms to investigate the potential of isopods grazing on cord-forming basidiomycete fungi to influence the community composition and functioning of a complex woodland soil microbial community. Using metagenomic sequencing we provide conclusive evidence of direct top-down control at the community scale in fungal-dominated woodland soil. By suppressing the dominant cord-forming basidiomycete fungi, isopods prevented the competitive exclusion of surrounding litter fungi, increasing diversity in a community containing several hundred fungal species. This isopod-induced modification of community composition drove a shift in the soil enzyme profile, and led to a restructuring of the wider mycophagous invertebrate community. We highlight characteristics of different soil ecosystems that will give rise to such top-down control. Given the ubiquity of isopods and basidiomycete fungi in temperate and boreal woodland ecosystems, such top-down community control could be of widespread significance for global carbon and nutrient cycling.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Biosciences
Subjects:	Q Science > QH Natural history > QH301 Biology Q Science > QK Botany
Uncontrolled Keywords:	decomposition, fungal energy channel, keystone species, microbial diversity, nutrient mobilization, soil community, top-down control
Publisher:	Ecological Society of America
ISSN:	0012-9658
Last Modified:	24 Oct 2022 11:35
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/48674

Citation Data

Cited 104 times in Scopus. View in Scopus. Powered By Scopus® Data

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item