Invertebrate grazing

Dighton Boddy, 1989), but loss can occur during interspecific interactions (J. M. Wells L. Boddy, unpublished), and as a result of invertebrate grazing (Anderson et ah, 1983). 

Th floodwater is photic and aerobic. It contains photosynthetic and chemosyn-thetic producers of fixed carbon-bacteria, algae and aquatic weeds—and invertebrate and vertebrate consumers that graze on the producers. The community of producers and consumers provides organic matter to the underlying soil and recycles inorganic nutrients. 

Grafa, M. A., Newell, S. Y. Kneib, R. T. (2000). Grazing rates of organic matter and living fungal biomass of decaying Spartina alterniflora by three species of salt-marsh invertebrates. Marine Biology, 136, 281-9. 

Many of the effects on carbon decomposition and stabilization discussed above for earthworms can be generalized to many groups of soil fauna. Table 10 summarizes the mechanisms by which soil invertebrates control decomposition and stabilization of OM in soils. Wolters (2000) hypothesized that soil invertebrates externally influence SOM destabilization by microorganisms in two ways (1) directly, by selectively grazing on... 

Plant detritus (either attached or detached from the plant) undergoes physical fragmentation through the action of waves and currents, UV exposure, and through grazing activities of macro invertebrates. Fragmentation of plant detritus into small fractions (<1 mm) results in increased surface areas and accelerated microscale processes (such as enzymatic hydrolysis and catabolic activities). 

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