Dataset Information

Stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen help to predict the belowground communities at a regional scale.

ABSTRACT: At the regional scale, although environmental factors are known to shape the distributions of belowground communities in terrestrial ecosystems, these environmental factors account for relatively low percentages of the variation in belowground communities. More of this variation might be explained by considering ecosystem stable isotopic values, which can provide insight into environmental conditions. Here, we investigated ecosystem (plant and soil) ?13C and ?15N values and belowground communities (microbes and nematodes) as well as environmental factors (climates, soils, and plants) across the Mongolian Plateau. The regression analyses showed that plant isotopic values were more closely associated with belowground communities than soil isotopic values, while ecosystem ?13C values were more closely associated with the belowground communities than ecosystem ?15N values. We also found isotopic values were more closely associated with nematode communities than microbial communities. Variation partioning analyses indicated that environmental variables together explained 16-45% of total variation in belowground communities. After isotopic variables were added as predictors to the variation partition analyses, the explanation of the variance was improved by14-24% for microbial communities and was improved by 23-44% for nematode communities. These findings indicate that isotopic values could be used to predict the properties of belowground communities at a regional scale.

SUBMITTER: Wang B

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5544679 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen help to predict the belowground communities at a regional scale.

Wang Bing B Wu Ying Y Chen Dima D

Scientific reports 20170804 1

At the regional scale, although environmental factors are known to shape the distributions of belowground communities in terrestrial ecosystems, these environmental factors account for relatively low percentages of the variation in belowground communities. More of this variation might be explained by considering ecosystem stable isotopic values, which can provide insight into environmental conditions. Here, we investigated ecosystem (plant and soil) δ<sup>13</sup>C and δ<sup>15</sup>N values and ...[more]

PMID: 28779090

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Project description:Isotope analysis has proven useful for understanding diets of animals that are difficult to track for extended periods. Bees are small yet highly mobile and often forage from multiple habitats. However, current methods of assessing diet are limited in scope. Efficient methods of tracking bee diets that integrate across life stages, distinguish habitat use, and are sensitive to taxonomic differences will inform conservation strategies. We evaluated the utility of stable isotope analysis for estimating contributions of adjacent habitats to bees' diets. We also investigated taxonomic variation in bee and flower isotope composition. We measured natural abundance of carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes in two body regions from three wild bee genera, as well as in 25 species of flowers that likely comprised their diets. Bee ∂13C and ∂15N varied with habitat and taxonomic groups (conflated with month), but did not match spatial or seasonal trends in their food plants. Flower ∂13C was lowest in the forest and in April-June, as expected if driven by water availability. However, bee ∂13C was elevated in the spring, likely from overwintering nutritional stress or unpredictable food availability. Bumble bees (Bombus) were enriched in ∂15N compared to others, possibly reflecting differences in larval feeding. Bee diet mixing models had high variation and should be interpreted with caution. Models estimated similar habitat contributions to diets of spring Andrena and overwintered Bombus queens. Summer Bombus queens and workers were indistinguishable. Sweat bees (Halictus) were estimated to use comparatively more field flowers than others. Overall, taxon more strongly influenced isotope composition than either foraging habitat or month, likely because of associated differences in sociality and timing of annual activity. Future studies seeking to reveal bee diets by isotope analysis may gain better resolution in more isotopically distinct habitats, in conjunction with controlled feeding or isotope labeling experiments.

Dataset Information

Stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen help to predict the belowground communities at a regional scale.

Publications

Stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen help to predict the belowground communities at a regional scale.

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