Incorporation of plant carbon into the soil animal food web of an arable system

We used stable isotopes to examine the incorporation of plant carbon into the belowground food web of an agricultural system. Plots were established and planted with maize (Zea mays) in a rye field (Secale cereale) near Göttingen (northern Germany) in May 1999. In October 1999, April 2000, and October 2000, meso‐ and macrofauna and maize and rye litter were collected in each plot and analyzed for ¹³C and ¹⁵N content. ¹⁵N signatures suggested that the soil animal species analyzed span three trophic levels with the trophic position of species varying little in time. The species investigated formed a continuum from primary to secondary decomposers to predators. On average, predator species differed from primary and secondary decomposers by 3.9 δ¹⁵N suggesting that they fed on a mixed diet of both decomposer groups. The combined analysis of ¹³C and ¹⁵N signatures allowed us to identify links between prey and consumer species. In October 1999, shortly after maize residues had been incorporated into the plots, maize‐born carbon was present in each of the animal species investigated, including top predators. The incorporation of maize carbon into the belowground food web increased during the following 12 months but the concentration of maize‐born carbon never exceeded 50% in any of the species. Furthermore, the ranks of the incorporation of maize‐born carbon of the species changed little. The results suggest that the belowground food web relies heavily on carbon originating from plant residues from before the recent two growing seasons. In most species the amount of maize‐born carbon increased continuously; however, in some species it decreased during winter, suggesting that these species switched to a diet based more on C3 plants during winter, or predominantly metabolized carbon incorporated during the last growing season. The study documents that the combined analysis of ¹³C and ¹⁵N signatures in soil invertebrate species, after replacement of C3 by C4 plants, is a powerful tool to better understand the structure of the belowground food web and the flux of carbon through it.