Limitações nutricionais nos invertebrados da serapilheira em florestas da Amazônia Central

Abstract

The availability of nutrients to plants depends on the weathering process of soil minerals and the recycling of organic matter. This association between advanced geological age and strong weathering has resulted in nutritional limitations to the development of vegetation in much of the Amazon. Given the importance of nutritional limitation for the functioning of Amazonian forests, and the lack of information on its effects on the structure and dynamics of soil organism communities, this study aimed to determine whether litter invertebrate communities suffer nutritional limitations. To answer this question, litter samples were collected during the rainy and dry seasons in two forest areas in Central Amazonia to determine the microbial CNP and the chemical composition of the litter. The invertebrates were collected, identified to the order level and grouped into functional groups of feeding habits. The concentration of P in the litter influenced the microbivores and the reduced access of microorganisms to P during the dry season reflected in the abundance of microbivores. Our results indicate that microbivores and other invertebrates living in leaf litter are subject to strong biogeochemical and seasonal controls.