Feeding Behavior Increases Nitrogen Availability

Biological Strategy

Nematodes

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Image: Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture / Wikimedia commons /

Cycle Nutrients

In ecosystems, there is no such thing as waste. Instead, one organism’s waste can be considered as another organism’s resource, and the cycling of nutrients may be the most important form of recycling in living systems. But sometimes those nutrients are transformed by one organism into a form that isn’t readily used by other organisms. For example, lignin is a complex organic molecule found in the cell walls of plants. In a forest, it’s one of the hardest molecules to break down in woody vegetation. Therefore, ecosystems include organisms that are particularly well-adapted to break down different types of nutrients. In the case of lignin, some fungi and bacteria release lignin-modifying enzymes that can break down the lignin to form carbohydrates and other life-supporting chemicals.

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Animals

Kingdom Animalia (“having breath or soul”): Mammals, reptiles, sponges, corals, insects, birds

This kingdom captures a staggering variety of life—from the smallest coral polyp to the largest elephant. Although animal body shapes and life histories vary, there are a few defining characteristics. Animals are heterotrophs, meaning they gain energy from eating other organisms, and have developed from single-celled ancestors to highly diversified and coordinated multicellular forms. Unlike plant and fungi cells that have rigid cell walls, animal cells are bound by more flexible combinations of proteins. Most animals have cells organized into tissues and are able to move within their environment.

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The feeding behavior of nematodes increases nitrogen availability to plants because they prey on nitrogen-hoarding bacteria and excrete excess nitrogen in a form plants can use.

“What good are nematodes? Thanks to microcosm studies [small-scale replicas of ecosystems with only certain types of organisms added to sterilized soil], scientists now know that these tiny grazers may be responsible for 30 percent or more of the nitrogen released to plants, useful work that has traditionally been attributed solely to the labors of bacteria and fungi. Russell Ingham and others then in the lab of David Coleman at Colorado State University found that bacteria thrived in larger numbers when they were placed in a microcosm of grassland soils with their nematode predator. Blue grama grass grew faster, too, and initially took up more nitrogen when the nematodes were at work below. It turns out that bacterial cells contain more nitrogen than nematodes can use, so the feasting nematodes excrete a lot of it as ammonium wastes. Both the surviving bacteria and the plants clearly benefit from this extra nitrogen source. Similar results have been found in other soil types, from those of the forests of Sweden to those nourishing winter wheat fields in The Netherlands. For instance, wheat grown where both bacteria and bacteria-grazing protozoa were active grew significantly better than in soils only bacteria present. Of course, in the real world, the action never involves just two interacting types of soil creatures, but rather a whole web of predators and prey.” (Baskin 1997:111-112)