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Nutrient optimization has been proposed as a way to increase boreal forest production, and involves chronic additions of liquid fertilizer with amounts of micro- and macro-nutrients adjusted annually to match tree nutritional requirements. We used a short-term (maintained since 2007) and a long-term (maintained since 1987) fertilization experiment in northern Sweden, in order to understand nutrient optimization effects on soil microbiota and mesofauna, and to explore the relationships between plant litter and microbial elemental stoichiometry. Soil microbes, soil fauna, and aboveground litter were collected from the control plots, and short- and long-term nutrient optimization plots. Correlation analyses revealed no relationships between microbial biomass and litter nutrient ratios. Litter C:N, C:P and N:P ratios declined in response to both optimization treatments; while only microbial C:P ratios declined in response to long-term nutrient optimization. Further, we found that both short- and long-term optimization treatments decreased total microbial, fungal, and bacterial PLFA biomass and shifted the microbial community structure towards a lower fungi:bacterial ratio. In contrast, abundances of most fungal- and bacterial-feeding soil biota were little affected by the nutrient optimization treatments. However, abundance of hemi-edaphic Collembola declined in response to the long-term nutrient optimization treatment. The relative abundances (%) of fungal-feeding and plant-feeding nematodes, respectively, declined and increased in response to both short-term and long-term treatments; bacterial-feeding nematodes increased relative to fungal feeders. Overall, our results demonstrate that long-term nutrient optimization aiming to increase forest production decreases litter C:N, C:P and N:P ratios, microbial C:P ratios and fungal biomass, whereas higher trophic levels are less affected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With global warming, mean temperatures and brownification of many waterbodies are predicted to increase. This may have unknown consequences on aquatic consumer life histories and nutrient content, consumer-mediated nutrient recycling, and nutrient transport between water and land., Using a large-scale experimental pond facility, we altered temperature (ambient/+4 °C) and brownification (clear/humic) in a 2 × 2 factorial design ( n = 16 pond sections) to test two aspects of climate change on Rana temporaria tadpole life-history traits and on tadpole-mediated nutrient pathways. On day 16 after hatching, we examined tadpole-mediated nutrient recycling by measuring tadpole nutrient excretion and egestion rates and tadpole body nutrient content. We estimated tadpole growth and development rates from hatching to emergence and measured emergent frog body size and body nutrient content., Brownification increased total pond water nutrient availability and total pond water nitrogen (N) : phosphorous (P) ratios. Warming positively affected tadpole growth and development rates, whereas browning increased tadpole growth rate only under ambient temperatures. Emergent frog body P content decreased with warming, but only in the clear treatments. But despite these variations in body nutrient content, body stoichiometry remained within a relatively narrow stoichiometric range for both emergent frogs (P content: 1.4-1.8%, N content: 11.4-11.8% and carbon [C] content: 46.9-51.3%) and tadpoles (P content: 1.1-1.2%, N content: 10.1-11.7% and C content: 48.0-50.5%). Warming increased tadpole body P content and browning had a positive effect on tadpole body N content and tadpole N excretion rates, probably mediated by the increased pond water total N availability., We conclude that warming and brownification will interact in changing aquatic consumer growth and body nutrient stoichiometry. In addition, warming has the potential to affect emergent frog body nutrient content and may thus affect nutrient transport from water to land. Last, by increasing pond water N availability, brownification appears to intensify consumer P limitation and thus amplify consumer-meditated N recycling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increased reactive nitrogen (Nr) deposition has raised the amount of N available to organisms and has greatly altered the transfer of energy through food webs, with major consequences for trophic dynamics. The aim of this review was to: (i) clarify the direct and indirect effects of Nr deposition on forest and lake food webs in N-limited biomes, (ii) compare and contrast how aquatic and terrestrial systems respond to increased Nr deposition, and (iii) identify how the nutrient pathways within and between ecosystems change in response to Nr deposition. We present that Nr deposition releases primary producers from N limitation in both forest and lake ecosystems and raises plants' N content which in turn benefits herbivores with high N requirements. Such trophic effects are coupled with a general decrease in biodiversity caused by different N-use efficiencies; slow-growing species with low rates of N turnover are replaced by fast-growing species with high rates of N turnover. In contrast, Nr deposition diminishes below-ground production in forests, due to a range of mechanisms that reduce microbial biomass, and decreases lake benthic productivity by switching herbivore growth from N to phosphorus (P) limitation, and by intensifying P limitation of benthic fish. The flow of nutrients between ecosystems is expected to change with increasing Nr deposition. Due to higher litter production and more intense precipitation, more terrestrial matter will enter lakes. This will benefit bacteria and will in turn boost the microbial food web. Additionally, Nr deposition promotes emergent insects, which subsidize the terrestrial food web as prey for insectivores or by dying and decomposing on land. So far, most studies have examined Nr-deposition effects on the food web base, whereas our review highlights that changes at the base of food webs substantially impact higher trophic levels and therefore food web structure and functioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Endothermic organisms can adapt to short growing seasons, low temperatures and nutrient limitation by developing high growth rates and high gross growth efficiencies ( GGEs). Animals with high GGEs are better at assimilating limiting nutrients and thus should recycle (or lose) fewer nutrients. Longer guts in relation to body mass may facilitate higher GGE under resource limitation., Within the context of ecological stoichiometry theory, this study combines ecology with evolution by relating latitudinal life-history adaptations in GGE, mediated by gut length, to its ecosystem consequences, such as consumer-mediated nutrient recycling., In common garden experiments, we raised Rana temporaria tadpoles from two regions (Arctic/Boreal) under two temperature regimes (18/23 °C) crossed with two food quality treatments (high/low-nitrogen content). We measured tadpole GGEs, total nutrient loss (excretion + egestion) rates and gut length during ontogeny., In order to maintain their elemental balance, tadpoles fed low-nitrogen (N) food had lower N excretion rates and higher total phosphorous (P) loss rates than tadpoles fed high-quality food. In accordance with expectations, Arctic tadpoles had higher GGEs and lower N loss rates than their low-latitude conspecifics, especially when fed low-N food, but only in ambient temperature treatments. Arctic tadpoles also had relatively longer guts than Boreal tadpoles during early development., That temperature and food quality interacted with tadpole region of origin in affecting tadpole GGEs, nutrient loss rates and relative gut length, suggests evolved adaptation to temperature and resource differences. With future climate change, mean annual temperatures will increase. Additionally, species and genotypes will migrate north. This will change the functioning of Boreal and Arctic ecosystems by affecting consumer-mediated nutrient recycling and thus affect nutrient dynamics in general. Our study shows that evolved latitudinal adaption can change key ecosystem functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]