An analysis of food-web structure and function in a shortgrass prairie, a mountain meadow, and a lodgepole pine forest

Summary

The structure of the below-ground detrital food web was similar in three different semiarid vegetation types: lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta subsp. latifolia), mountain meadow (Agropyron smithii), and shortgrass prairie (Bouteloua gracilis). The densities of component food-web functional groups and the response to removal of component groups, differed however. As measured by biomass, bacteria were dominant in the meadow and prairie, while fungi were dominant in the forest. Resourde-base dominance was reflected in consumer dominance, and both directly correlated with the form of inorganic N present. Bacterial-feeding nematodes were numerically dominant in the meadow and prairie, while microarthropods were dominant in the forest. Ammonium-N was the dominant form in the forest, while nitrate —nitrite-N was the more important form in both bacterial-dominated grasslands.

Addition of a biocide solution containing carbofuran and dimethoate reduced the numbers of both microarthropods and nematodes. In the bacterial-dominated grasslands, these reductions resulted in no apparent effect on bacterial densities because one group of bacterial consumers (protozoa) increased following the decrease in bacteria-feeding nematodes, in increased fungal biomass, and in increased soil inorganic N. Conversely, in the forest, following the biocide-induced reduction in consumers, the total fungal biomass decreased, but inorganic-N levels increased. The meadow appeared to be the most resilient of the three ecosystems to biocide disturbance, as both nematode and arthropod numbers returned to control levels more rapidly in the meadow than in the prairie or the forest.