A comparison of aboveground and belowground community succession along a proglacial chronosequence in Kenai Fjords, Alaska
Flagstad LA. 2007. A comparison of aboveground and belowground community succession along a proglacial chronosequence in Kenai Fjords, Alaska. University of Alaska Anchorage
The links among aboveground and belowground biotic communities are believed to be multiple, reciprocal and specific, but the patterns of these interactions are not well-established in space and time. To gain a better understanding of aboveground-belowground community interactions, terrestrial plant and soil protozoan (testate amoeba) communities were surveyed along a proglacial chronosequence in Kenai Fjords, Alaska. Unlike many comparisons among different functional groups, the species diversity patterns and the communities’ response to site variables shown in this study are remarkably similar for both plants and testate amoebae. Tight correlations between these two groups suggest that, contrary to traditional successional theory, biotic interactions may provide greater influence to ecosystem development than changes in abiotic site conditions. The apparent importance of interactions between aboveground and belowground biota in this North Pacific maritime ecosystem highlights the functional role of soil organisms to ecosystem development and supports the correlation of diversity patterns for functionally different groups across extended spatial and temporal gradients.