Publications by authors named "Sarah L Bluhm"

Carbon allocation of trees to ectomycorrhizas is thought to shape forest nutrient cycling, but the sink activities of different fungal taxa for host resources are unknown. Here, we investigate fungal taxon-specific differences in naturally composed ectomycorrhizal (EM) communities for plant-derived carbon and nitrogen. After aboveground dual labeling of young beech with N and C, ectomycorrhizas formed with different fungal taxa exhibit strong differences in label enrichment.

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Article Synopsis
  • - Soil organisms play a crucial role in ecosystem functions by breaking down carbon and nutrients, directly impacting plant growth, biodiversity, and human nutrition.
  • - While soil ecologists often use functional groups to analyze these organisms, there's a lack of comprehensive knowledge about the feeding habits of many soil taxa, despite advancements in molecular and biochemical tools over the past two decades.
  • - The review synthesizes current knowledge on the feeding habits of various soil organisms, revealing that many traditionally defined functional groups exhibit omnivorous feeding patterns and interconnected trophic relationships, challenging existing models of soil food webs.
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Land-use change is threatening biodiversity worldwide, affecting above and below ground animal communities by altering their trophic niches. However, shifts in trophic niches with changes in land use are little studied and this applies in particular to belowground animals. Oribatid mites are among the most abundant soil animals, involved in decomposition processes and nutrient cycling.

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The input of plant leaf litter has been assumed to be the most important resource for soil organisms of forest ecosystems, but there is increasing evidence that root-derived resources may be more important. By trenching roots of trees in deciduous and coniferous forests, we cut-off the input of root-derived resources and investigated the response of microorganisms using substrate-induced respiration and phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) analysis. After one and three years, root trenching strongly decreased microbial biomass and concentrations of PLFAs by about 20%, but the microbial community structure was little affected and the effects were similar in deciduous and coniferous forests.

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Background: Ectomycorrhizal fungi (ECM) play a central role in nutrient cycling in boreal and temperate forests, but their role in the soil food web remains little understood. One of the groups assumed to live as specialised mycorrhizal feeders are Protura, but experimental and field evidence is lacking. We used a combination of three methods to test if Protura are specialized mycorrhizal feeders and compared their trophic niche with other soil invertebrates.

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