The browser you are using is not supported by this website. All versions of Internet Explorer are no longer supported, either by us or Microsoft (read more here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/windows/end-of-ie-support).

Please use a modern browser to fully experience our website, such as the newest versions of Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari etc.

Katarina Hedlund

Katarina Hedlund

Professor

Katarina Hedlund

Selective foraging of fungi by collembolans in soil

Author

  • Helene Bracht Jörgensen
  • Tomas Johansson
  • Björn Canbäck
  • Katarina Hedlund
  • Anders Tunlid

Summary, in English

Soils contain highly diverse communities of microorganisms and invertebrates. The trophic interactions between these species are largely unknown. Collembolans form an abundant part of the invertebrate community in soils. A prevailing view is that soil collembolans are generalist feeders on fungi, lichens, fragmented litter and bacteria. However, in laboratory food choice experiments, it has been shown that collembolans preferentially select certain taxa of fungi. To examine this apparent contradiction, we developed a molecular technique based on the analysis of 18S ribosomal DNA (rDNA) sequences to explore the diversity of fungi in soils and in the guts of collembolans. We report that the diversity of fungi found in the natural soil was 33 times higher than that in the guts of the collembolan Protaphorura armata. The data support the view that collembolan species can be highly selective when foraging on fungi in soils.

Department/s

  • Biodiversity
  • MEMEG
  • Soil Ecology
  • Microbial Ecology

Publishing year

2005

Language

English

Pages

243-246

Publication/Series

Biology letters

Volume

1

Issue

2

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Royal Society Publishing

Topic

  • Biological Sciences
  • Ecology

Keywords

  • collembolanfood selectionsoil food webribosomal DNAfungi

Status

Published

Research group

  • Soil Ecology
  • Microbial Ecology

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1744-9561