Katarina Hedlund
Professor
Patchiness and compensatory growth in a fungus-Collembola system
Author
Summary, in English
The compensatory growth potential of a grazed fungal biomass was mathematically expressed as a function of patchiness in its distribution and demonstrated in an experiment using the fungivorous collembolan Onychiurus armatus and the soil fungi Verticillium bulbillosum and Penicillium spinulosum. The model addresses the regrowth potential in relation to patch fragmentation, travelling time and consumption rate of the collembolan and the mean relative growth rate of the fungus. It suggests that the mean relative growth rate required for regrowth decreases with patch fragmentation and increases with the mean growth rate of the fungus. The experiments were performed with a system of soil-filled vials provided with fungi and collembolans. The size of the vials and the length of the tubes connecting them were varied to give different patch sizes and travelling times. The respiratory activity of fungi after grazing increased as a unit of mycelium was distributed into smaller connected vials. The slow growing species V. bulbillosum showed a greater but delayed response to grazing in comparison with the fast growing P. spinulosum. An increased travelling time delayed the growth response in both species.
Department/s
- Department of Biology
- Soil Ecology
Publishing year
1993-03-01
Language
English
Pages
296-302
Publication/Series
Oecologia
Volume
93
Issue
2
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
Springer
Topic
- Ecology
Keywords
- Collembola
- Foraging
- Fungivore
- Growth compensation
- Patchiness
Status
Published
Research group
- Soil Ecology
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 0029-8549