On Thursday, October 17 @ 11am ET, join Cary Institute for a virtual scientific seminar by Dr. Nate LaMoine, Marquette University.
Although primarily studied for their contributions to plant ecology and evolution, herbivores drive belowground soil processes. In life and death, herbivores determine landscape-scale nutrient distributions and drive belowground activity. This talk will explore the belowground component of the soil-plant-herbivore feedback loop, demonstrating how both the smallest and largest of herbivores are essential to grassland and savanna belowground function.
Although often overlooked, grasshoppers buffer soil carbon cycling against extreme variation in soil water content by enabling bacteria to switch rapidly between oligotrophic and copiotrophic-dominated states. This bacterial lability then dampens fluctuations in soil carbon use in response to extreme changes in soil water content. Thus, grasshoppers are integral members of the grassland feedback loop that helps maintain ecosystem function in the face of climate change.
African elephants, on the other hand, promote ecosystem heterogeneity by creating hot moments of soil microbial activity and carbon flux when they die. Their deaths provide nutrients and resources that enhance terrestrial biodiversity and ecosystem productivity for several years post-mortem. Sites of elephant carcasses have elevated nutrient content, elevated microbial activity, and different plant communities that then help promote grazing by other herbivorous animals. Thus, the loss of living elephants, essential for savanna health, is amplified by the loss of their carcasses, which serve as biogeochemical hotspots in an otherwise nutrient-depleted system.
Free and open to all. Registration required via Eventbrite.