T. Birkemoe et T. Liengen, Does collembolan grazing influence nitrogen fixation by cyanobacteria in the high Arctic?, POLAR BIOL, 23(8), 2000, pp. 589-592
A field experiment was performed to test whether cyanobacterial nitrogen fi
xation rates increase or decrease when exposed to low and moderate microart
hropod grazing intensities. The densities of naturally occurring Collembola
, i.e, Hypogastrura viatica, were manipulated on a salt marsh covered with
cyanobacteria in the high Arctic, Svalbard, Nitrogen-fixation rates in graz
ed cyanobacterial crust were measured and used as an indirect measurement o
f cyanobacterial biomass on three dates during one summer. After 30 days, a
second order polynomial regression gave a good fit to the data, indicating
an increase in nitrogen-fixation rates at low/intermediate grazing pressur
es and a decrease at high grazing pressures. Thus, grazing collembolans may
influence the nitrogen-fixation rates in an arctic salt-marsh community. A
lthough based on a small set of data, the study indicates a compensatory fi
xation at low grazing pressures followed by a reduction at high grazing pre
ssures.