Linking Spatial Variation of Below-Ground Faunal Assemblages with the Structure of Herbaceous Vegetation

植物根系对土壤养分的取食能力研究表明，优势植物的取食范围较广，忽视了养分有效性高的小“热点”；更稀有的植物在当地觅食，可以找到这些热点。生活在陆生碎屑中的节肢动物分布不均匀。它们的取食（主要以参与腐质分解的微生物为食）将必需的营养物质释放到土壤中，生长中的植物将其捕获。因此，分布不均的节肢动物创造了一个高度可变的营养物质可用性马赛克。结合我们对植物觅食策略的了解和对土壤养分热点区动物成因的见解，研究人员假设土壤动物活动有助于维持高度植物多样性。这个想法将在定制的“迷你景观”中进行测试，其中将引入土壤动物，并随后监测营养物质和植物多样性。

ABSTRACT 97-07461 Heneghan Linking spatial variation of below-ground faunal assemblages with the structure of herbaceous vegetation Research on the ability of plant roots to forage for soil nutrients has shown that dominant plants forage widely and ignore small 'hotspots' of high nutrient availability; rarer plants forage locally and can locate these hotspots. Arthropods living in terrestrial detritus are not uniformly distributed. Their feeding (primarily on the microbes involved in the decomposition of detritus) results in the liberation of essential nutrients into the soil where growing plants capture them. Thus the heterogenously distributed arthropods create a highly variable mosaic of nutrient availability. Combining our knowledge of plants' foraging strategies with insights into the faunal genesis of nutrient hotspots in the soil the investigators hypothesize that soil faunal activity contributes to the maintenance of high plant diversity. This idea will be tested in custom built "mini-landscapes" into which soil animals will be introduced and nutrients and plant diversity will be subsequently monitored.