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Palatability of Selected Alpine Plant Litters for the Decomposer Lumbricus rubellus (Lumbricidae)

On alpine pastureland the decline in large-bodied earthworm numbers and biomass after abandonment of management might be the result of a shift from highly palatable grass litter to poorly digestible leaf litter of dwarf shrubs. To test this hypothesis, we analysed nitrogen, phosphorous and total phe...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Rief, Alexander, Knapp, Brigitte A., Seeber, Julia
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3445458/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23028949
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0045345
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author Rief, Alexander
Knapp, Brigitte A.
Seeber, Julia
author_facet Rief, Alexander
Knapp, Brigitte A.
Seeber, Julia
author_sort Rief, Alexander
collection PubMed
description On alpine pastureland the decline in large-bodied earthworm numbers and biomass after abandonment of management might be the result of a shift from highly palatable grass litter to poorly digestible leaf litter of dwarf shrubs. To test this hypothesis, we analysed nitrogen, phosphorous and total phenolic contents of fresh and aged litter of eight commonly occuring alpine plant species and compared consumption rates of these food sources in a controlled feeding experiment with Lumbricus rubellus (Lumbricidae). Furthermore, we analysed the microbial community structure of aged litter materials to check for a relationship between the microbial characteristics of the different plant litter types and the food choice of earthworms. Plant litters differed significantly in their chemical composition, earthworms, however, showed no preference for any litter species, but generally rejected fresh litter material. Microbial community structures of the litter types were significantly different, but we could find no evidence for selective feeding of L. rubellus. We conclude that L. rubellus is a widespread, adaptable ubiquist, which is able to feed on a variety of food sources differing in quality and palatability, as long as they have been exposed to wheathering.
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spelling pubmed-34454582012-10-01 Palatability of Selected Alpine Plant Litters for the Decomposer Lumbricus rubellus (Lumbricidae) Rief, Alexander Knapp, Brigitte A. Seeber, Julia PLoS One Research Article On alpine pastureland the decline in large-bodied earthworm numbers and biomass after abandonment of management might be the result of a shift from highly palatable grass litter to poorly digestible leaf litter of dwarf shrubs. To test this hypothesis, we analysed nitrogen, phosphorous and total phenolic contents of fresh and aged litter of eight commonly occuring alpine plant species and compared consumption rates of these food sources in a controlled feeding experiment with Lumbricus rubellus (Lumbricidae). Furthermore, we analysed the microbial community structure of aged litter materials to check for a relationship between the microbial characteristics of the different plant litter types and the food choice of earthworms. Plant litters differed significantly in their chemical composition, earthworms, however, showed no preference for any litter species, but generally rejected fresh litter material. Microbial community structures of the litter types were significantly different, but we could find no evidence for selective feeding of L. rubellus. We conclude that L. rubellus is a widespread, adaptable ubiquist, which is able to feed on a variety of food sources differing in quality and palatability, as long as they have been exposed to wheathering. Public Library of Science 2012-09-18 /pmc/articles/PMC3445458/ /pubmed/23028949 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0045345 Text en © 2012 Rief et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Rief, Alexander
Knapp, Brigitte A.
Seeber, Julia
Palatability of Selected Alpine Plant Litters for the Decomposer Lumbricus rubellus (Lumbricidae)
title Palatability of Selected Alpine Plant Litters for the Decomposer Lumbricus rubellus (Lumbricidae)
title_full Palatability of Selected Alpine Plant Litters for the Decomposer Lumbricus rubellus (Lumbricidae)
title_fullStr Palatability of Selected Alpine Plant Litters for the Decomposer Lumbricus rubellus (Lumbricidae)
title_full_unstemmed Palatability of Selected Alpine Plant Litters for the Decomposer Lumbricus rubellus (Lumbricidae)
title_short Palatability of Selected Alpine Plant Litters for the Decomposer Lumbricus rubellus (Lumbricidae)
title_sort palatability of selected alpine plant litters for the decomposer lumbricus rubellus (lumbricidae)
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3445458/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23028949
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0045345
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