Recycling of Nitrogen in Herbivore Feces: Plant Recovery, Herbivore Assimilation, Soil Retention, and Leaching Losses.
From: Institute of Ecology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602-2202, USA. cfrost@psu.edu
Oecologia
- Publish Date: Feb 2007
- ISSN: 0029-8549
- Volume: 151
- Issue: 1
- Pages: 42-53
- Medium: Print
- Language: English
- Citation (JAMA): Frost Christopher J, Hunter Mark D, et al. Recycling of Nitrogen in Herbivore Feces: Plant Recovery, Herbivore Assimilation, Soil Retention, and Leaching Losses.. Oecologia Feb 2007;151:42-53
Abstract
Herbivores directly and indirectly affect ecosystem functioning in forests. Feces deposition is a direct effect that supplies ephemeral N pulses to soils. Herbivore-mediated changes in plant N allocation and uptake are indirect effects that can also influence soil N availability. These effects may interact if defoliation influences the ability of plants to recover fecal N, and this may affect subsequent generations of herbivores. We added (15)N-enriched insect feces (frass) to a series of replicated red oak, Quercus rubra, mesocosms that had been damaged experimentally and then followed the frass N over the course of 2 years. In the first season, some frass N was mineralized in the soil and leached in organic form from the mesocosms within 1 week of deposition. Within 1 month, frass N had been acquired by the oaks and enriched the foliage; late-season herbivores assimilated the frass N within the same growing season. In the second season, herbivore damage from the previous year lowered total leaf N contents and (15)N recovered in the foliage. A subsequent cohort of early-season herbivores fed on this foliage consequently derived less of their N from the previous year’s frass, and feral leaf rollers colonized fewer of these saplings. The 0- to 5-cm soil fraction was the largest N sink measured, and 42% of the frass N was recovered in the soil. The results demonstrate that: (1) some frass N can be recycled rapidly into foliage and assimilated by successive cohorts of herbivore within the same season; (2) damage can affect N allocation in the following year’s foliage, influencing N availability to and host selection by herbivores; and (3) leaching losses occur soon after deposition but are buffered by soil pools, which are the largest sinks for frass N.
Mesh Headings (Keywords): Analysis of Variance, Animals, Ecosystem, Feces, Georgia, Insects, Mass Spectrometry, Nitrogen Isotopes, Plant Leaves, Quercus, Soil
Check for Full Text / PubMed Unique Identifier (PMID): 17089141
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