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Science 12 August 2005:
Vol. 309. no. 5737, p. 1047
DOI: 10.1126/science.1114769
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Brevia

Soil Invertebrates Disrupt Carbon Flow Through Fungal Networks

David Johnson,1*{dagger} Martin Krsek,2 Elizabeth M. H. Wellington,2 Andrew W. Stott,3 Lisa Cole,4 Richard D. Bardgett,5 David J. Read,6 Jonathan R. Leake6*

Annual carbon flux through soil respiration is ten times greater than fossil fuel combustion, but its component parts are poorly understood because they are the product of complex multitrophic interactions between soil organisms. A major component of carbon flux from plants to soil occurs through networks of symbiotic arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Here, using 13CO2 pulse labeling, we show that natural densities of the numerically dominant fungal feeding invertebrate Protaphorura armata (order Collembola) reduces 13C enrichment of mycorrhizosphere respiration by 32%. Our findings emphasize the importance of multitrophic interactions in regulating respiration of recent plant photosynthate from soil.

1 School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 3UU, UK.
2 Department of Biological Sciences, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK.
3 Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Life Sciences Mass Spectrometry Facility, Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster LA1 4AP, UK.
4 Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Banchory AB31 4BW, UK.
5 Institute of Environmental and Natural Sciences, University of Lancaster, Lancaster LA1 4YQ, UK.
6 Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK.

* These authors contributed equally to this work.

{dagger} To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: D.Johnson{at}abdn.ac.uk

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