Positive indirect effect of tadpoles on a detritivore through nutrient regeneration |
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Authors: | Noriko Iwai Takashi Kagaya |
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Institution: | (1) Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, University of Tokyo, 1-1-1 Yayoi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8657, Japan |
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Abstract: | In aquatic food webs consumers can affect other members of the web by releasing nutrients as a result of their feeding activity.
There is increasing evidence of these positive effects on primary producers, but such nutrient regeneration can also affect
detritivores, by favoring the activities of detritus-associated microbes. We examined the effects of nutrient regeneration
by tadpoles on leaf-eating detritivores under laboratory conditions. We fed four species of tadpoles three different food
items (leaf litter, algae, and sludgeworms). We then conditioned terrestrial dead leaves with water from reared tadpoles (treatments)
or food items alone (controls), and compared the C:N ratios of the conditioned leaves and the growth of the isopod Asellus hilgendorfii fed on the conditioned leaves. Tadpole feeding activity reduced the C:N ratio of conditioned leaves, and the effect was greatest
when tadpoles were fed algae. Isopod growth rates were often higher when they were fed the litter conditioned with water from
reared tadpoles. Thus, nutrient regeneration by tadpoles had a positive indirect effect on detritivores by enhancing leaf
quality. Tadpoles often occur in nutrient-limited habitats where leaf litter is the major energy source, and their facilitative
effects on leaf-eating detritivores may be of great significance in food webs by enhancing litter decomposition. |
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Keywords: | Anuran larvae Leaf litter Nutrient release Ponds Shredder |
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