title: Selective foraging of fungi by collembolans in soil.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Terrestrial Ecology, National Environmental Research Institute, Silkeborg, Denmark. helene.bracht_jorgensen@zooekol.lu.se
authors.forename: Helene Bracht
authors.initials: HB
authors.lastname: Jørgensen
authors.forename: Tomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Johansson
authors.forename: Björn
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Canbäck
authors.forename: Katarina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hedlund
authors.forename: Anders
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tunlid
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001181:Arthropods; D044822:Biodiversity; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal; D004032:Diet; D005518:Food Preferences; D005658:Fungi / Q000235:genetics; D012988:Soil Microbiology
chemical_list: D004275:DNA, Ribosomal