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Maran_Thesis_06152015.pdf (502.34 KB)

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Predator Contributions to Belowground Responses to Warming

Maran, Audrey M
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1434114404

Abstract Details

2015, Master of Science (MS), Bowling Green State University, Biological Sciences.
Identifying the factors that control soil carbon dioxide emissions will improve our ability to predict the magnitude of climate change-soil ecosystem feedbacks. Despite the integral role of invertebrates in belowground systems, they are excluded from climate change models. Soil invertebrates have consumptive and non-consumptive effects on microbes, whose respiration accounts for nearly half of soil carbon dioxide emissions. By altering the behavior and abundance of invertebrates that interact with microbes, invertebrate predators may have indirect effects on soil respiration. This research examined the effects of a generalist arthropod predator on belowground respiration under different warming scenarios. Based on research suggesting invertebrates may mediate soil carbon dioxide emission responses to warming, predator presence was predicted to result in increased emissions by negatively affecting these invertebrates. Presence of the predator, wolf spiders (Pardosa spp.), was manipulated in mesocosms containing a community of soil invertebrates. To simulate warming, we placed mesocosms of each treatment in ten open-top warming chambers ranging from 1.5 to 5.5° C above ambient at Harvard Forest, MA. Soil carbon dioxide efflux data, microbial abundance, soil moisture, and soil temperature were measured to determine the effects of predators on belowground systems. As expected, carbon dioxide emissions increased under warming and there was an interactive effect of predator presence and warming, though the effect was not consistent through time. The interaction between predator presence and temperature was the inverse of our predictions: mesocosms with predators had lower carbon dioxide emissions at higher temperatures than those without predators. Carbon dioxide emissions were not significantly associated with microbial biomass or soil moisture. There was not find evidence of consumptive effects of predators on the invertebrate community, suggesting that predator presence mediates response of microbial respiration to warming through non-consumptive means. In this system we found a significant interaction between warming and predator presence that warrants further research into mechanism and generality of this pattern to other systems
Shannon Pelini, Dr. (Advisor)
Kevin McCluney, Dr. (Committee Member)
Michael Weintraub, Dr. (Committee Member)
36 p.
Biology; Climate Change; Ecology; Soil Sciences
climate change; warming; predator; soil; invertebrate; insect; ecology; carbon; carbon dioxide; linear mixed effects model; respiration

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Maran, A. M. (2015). Predator Contributions to Belowground Responses to Warming [Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1434114404

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Maran, Audrey. Predator Contributions to Belowground Responses to Warming . 2015. Bowling Green State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1434114404.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Maran, Audrey. "Predator Contributions to Belowground Responses to Warming ." Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1434114404

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

bgsu1434114404
568
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This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.