Abstract
Functionality of soil food webs after forest fires remains generally unexplored. We address this question by studying both burnt and unburnt spruce forests in Central European Russia (Tver Region). In August 2014 we sampled two spatially distant blocks consisting of forest areas burnt in 2010 and the respective unburnt controls. We analyzed biomass and structure of soil food webs as well as carbon mobilization with respect to carbon stocks in the dead wood, litter and soil after burning. The biomass of soil fauna was moderately reduced in the burnt plots. For some groups like testate amoebae and enchytraeids, however, this decrease was highly significant and corresponded with the decreased C-stock in litter. For the other taxa changes in biomass were insignificant. At the same time C-flow through the soil food web after fire was strongly reduced mainly due to the reduction of biomass of active fungi and secondary decomposers. The overall consumption rate of detritus by the soil food web strongly decreased in the burnt forests and was maintained predominantly by the decomposition activity of bacteria instead of fungi. This resulted in the reduction of the total soil food web functionality related with C-mobilization in the forests four years after a fire event.
Brief Summary
We compared rates of carbon mobilization by soil food webs in burnt and unburnt boreal forests in Central Russia. Despite of only slight decrease in soil animal biomass, consumption rate of carbon in the soil food webs after fire was considerably lower and mainly associated with soil bacteria instead of fungi.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Arinushkina, E.V., Rukovodstvo po khimicheskomu analizu pochv (Manual on Soil Chemical Analysis), Moscow: Mosk. Gos. Univ., 1970.
Baermann, G., Eine einfache methode zur auffindung von ankylostomum (nematoden) larven in erdproben, Weltevreden. Batavia. Geneesk. Lab. Feestbundel, 1917, pp. 41–47.
Bardgett, R.D., van der Putten, W.H, Belowground biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, Nature, 2014, vol. 515, no. 7528, pp. 505–511.
Bezkorovainaya, I.N., Krasnoshchekova, E.N., and Ivanova, G.A., Transformation of soil invertebrate complex after surface fires of different intensity, Biol. Bull., 2007a, vol. 34, no. 5, pp. 517–522.
Bezkorovainaya, I.N., Tarasov, P.A., Ivanova, G.A., Bogorodskaya, A.V., and Krasnoshchekova, E.N., The nitrogen reserves in sandy podzols after controlled fires in pine forests of Central Siberia, Eurasian Soil Sci., 2007b, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 700–707.
Bogorodskaya, A.V., Krasnoshchekova, E.N. Bezkorovainaya, I.N., and Ivanova, G.A., Post-fire transformation of microbial communities and invertebrate complexes in the pine forest soils, Central Siberia, Contemp. Probl. Ecol., 2010, vol. 3, no. 6, pp 653–659.
Bradford, M.A., Wood, S.A., Bardgett, R.D., Black, H.I.J., Bonkowski, M., Eggers, T., Grayston, S.J., Kandeler, E., Manning, P., Setälä, H., and Jones, H., Discontinuity in the responses of ecosystem processes and multifunctionality to altered soil community composition, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 2014, vol. 111, pp. 14 478–14 483.
Caballero, M., Baquero, E., Ariño, A.H., and Jordana, R, Indirect biomass estimations in Collembola, Pedobiologia, 2004, vol. 48, pp. 551–557.
de Vries, F.T., Thébault, E., Liiri, M., Birkhofer, K., Tsiafouli, M.A., Bjørnlundet, L., Bjørnlund, L., Jørgensen, H.B., Brady, M.V., Christensen, S., de Ruiter, P.C., d’Hertefeldt, T., Frouz, J., Hedlund, K., Hemerik, L., et al., Soil food web properties explain ecosystem services across European land use systems, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 2013, vol. 110, pp. 14296–14301.
DeBano, L.F., Neary, D.G., and Ffolliott, P.F., Fire Effects on Ecosystems, New York: Wiley, 1999.
Gamfeldt, L., Snäll, T., Bagchi, R., Jonsson, M., Gustafsson, L., Kjellander, P., Ruiz-Jaen, M.C., Fröberg, M., Stendahl, J., Philipson, C.D., Mikusinski, G., Andersson, E., Westerlund, B., Andrén, H., Moberg, F., et al., Higher levels of multiple ecosystem services are found in forests with more tree species, Nat. Commun., 2013, vol. 4, p. 1340.
George, P.B.L. and Lindo, Z, Application of body size spectra to nematode trait-index analyses, Soil Biol. Biochem., 2015, vol. 84, pp. 15–20.
Gongalsky, K.B., Malmström, A., Zaitsev, A.S., Shakhab, S.V., Bengtsson, J., and Persson, T, Do burned areas recover from inside? An experiment with soil fauna in a heterogeneous landscape, Appl. Soil Ecol., 2012, vol. 59, pp. 73–86.
Gongalsky, K.B. and Persson, T, Recovery of soil macrofauna after wildfires in boreal forests, Soil Biol. Biochem., 2013, vol. 57, pp. 182–191.
Gongalsky, K.B., Zaitsev, A.S., Korobushkin, D.I., Saifutdinov, R.A., Yazrikova, T.E., Benediktova, A.I, Gorbunova, A.Yu., Gorshkova, I.A., Butenko, K.O., Kosina, N.V., Lapygina, E.V., Kuznetsova, D.M., Rakhleeva, A.A., and Shakhab, S.V., Diversity of the soil biota in burned areas of southern taiga forests (Tver oblast), Eurasian Soil Sci., 2016, vol. 49, no. 3, pp. 358–366.
Hector, A. and Bagchi, R, Biodiversity and ecosystem multifunctionality, Nature, 2007, vol. 448, pp. 188–190.
Hunt, H.W., Coleman, D.C., Ingham, E.R., Ingham, R.E., Elliott, E.T., Moore, J.C., Rose, S.L., Reid, C.P.P., and Morley, C.R, The detrital food web in a shortgrass prairie, Biol. Fertil. Soils, 1987, vol. 3, pp. 57–68.
Keeley, J.E, Fire intensity, fire severity and burn severity: a brief review and suggested usage, Int. J. Wildland Fire, 2009, vol. 18, pp. 116–126.
Korganova, G.A., Soil testate amoebae (Protozoa, Testacea): fauna, ecology and principles of community organization, Extended Abstract of Doctoral (Biol.) Dissertation, Moscow: Severtsov Inst. Ecol. Evol., 1997.
Krivtsov, V., Griffiths, B.S., Salmond, R., Liddell, K., Garside, A., Bezginova, T., Thompson, J., Staines, H.J., Watling, R., Brendler, A., and Palfreyman, J.W, Some aspects of interrelations between fungi and other biota in forest soil, Mycol. Res., 2004, vol. 108, pp. 933–946.
Kwok, A.B.C. and Eldridge, D.J., Does fire affect the ground-dwelling arthropod community through changes to fine-scale resource patches? Int. J. Wildland Fire, 2015, vol. 24, pp. 550–559.
Luxton, M, Studies on the oribatid mites of Danish beech wood soil. II. Biomass, calorimetry and respirometry, Pedobiologia, 1975, vol. 15, pp. 161–200.
Malmström, A, The importance of measuring fire severity: evidence from microarthropod studies, For. Ecol. Manage., 2010, vol. 260, pp. 62–70.
Malmström, A., Persson, T., Ahlström, K., Gongalsky, K.B., and Bengtsson, J, Dynamics of soil meso- and macrofauna during a 5-year period after clear-cut burning in a boreal forest, Appl. Soil Ecol., 2009, vol. 43, pp. 61–74.
Nielsen, U.N., Ayres, E., Wall, D.H., and Bardgett, R.D, Soil biodiversity and carbon cycling: A review and synthesis of studies examining diversity-function relationships, Eur. J. Soil Sci., 2011, vol. 62, pp. 105–116.
Olson, D.M., Dinerstein, E., Wikramanayake, E.D., Burgess, N.D., Powell, G.V.N., Underwood, E.C., D’Amico, J.A., Itoua, I., Strand, H.E., Morrison, J.C., Loucks, C.J., Allnutt, T.F., Ricketts, T.H., Kura, Y., Lamoreux, J.F., et al., Terrestrial ecoregions of the world: a new map of life on Earth, BioScience, 2001, vol. 51, pp. 933–938.
Pantsirnye kleshchi (Oribatid Mites), Krivolutskii, D.A., Ed., Moscow: Nauka, 1995. Perry, D.A., Forest Ecosystems, Baltimore: John Hopkin Univ. Press, 1994.
Rakhleeva, A.A. and Korganova, G.A, On the estimate of the abundance and species diversity of testate amoebae (Rhizopoda, Testacea) in boreal soils, Zool. Zh., 2005, vol. 84, pp. 1427–1436.
Römbke, J, Enchyträen (Oligochaeta) als Bioindikator, Umweltwiss. Schadst.-Forsch., 1995, vol. 7, pp. 246–4.
Sgardelis, S., Pantis, J., Argyropoulou, M., and Stamou, G, Effects of fire on soil macroinvertebrates in a Mediterranean phryganic ecosystem, Int. J. Wildland Fire, 1995, vol. 5, pp. 113–121.
Zaitsev, A.S., Gongalsky, K.B., Malmström, A., Persson, T., and Bengtsson, J, Why are forest fires generally neglected in soil fauna research? A mini-review, Appl. Soil Ecol., 2016, vol. 98, pp. 261–271.
Zaitsev, A.S. and van Straalen, N.M, Species diversity and metal accumulation in oribatid mites (Acari, Oribatida) of forests affected by a metallurgical plant, Pedobiologia, 2001, vol. 45, pp. 467–479.
Zvyagintsev, D.G., Metody pochvennoi mikrobiologii i biokhimii (Practical Soil Microbiology and Biochemistry), Moscow: Mosk. Gos. Univ., 1991.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
The article is published in the original
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zaitsev, A.S., Gongalsky, K.B., Korobushkin, D.I. et al. Reduced functionality of soil food webs in burnt boreal forests: a case study in Central Russia. Contemp. Probl. Ecol. 10, 277–285 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1134/S199542551703012X
Received:
Revised:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S199542551703012X