SIMULATION OF MESOFAUNA MEDIATED CHANGES IN LITTER DECOMPOSITION - LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS WITH C-14-LABELED HOLOCELLULOSE

Two experiments were set up investigating the effect of inoculation with microbial propagules of different origin and of nutrient (N and P) additions on (CO2)-C-14 - C release from C-14-labelled holocellulose mixed with brown or white rotted beech wood over 63 days. Generally, each of the inoculation solutions containing microbial propagules from brown rotted wood, white rotted wood, faecal particles of Phthiracarus piger (Scopoli, 1763) and the body surface of P.piger caused a reduction in cumulative (CO2)-C-14 - C release from holocellulose mixed with air-dried brown rotted wood and (CO2)-C-14 - C release from holocellulose approached that in the treatment with field moist (non-air-dried) brown rotted wood. A similar trend occurred in (CO2)-C-14 - C release from holocellulose mixed with air-dried white rotted wood, except after inoculation with microbial propagules from brown rotted wood. In this treatment cumulative (CO2)-C-14 - C release from holocellulose significantly exceeded that of the control (addition of sterile solution). Addition of nutrients showed that (CO2)-C-14 - C release from holocellulose mixed with brown or white rotted beech wood is limited by N.