On the controls of abundance for soil‐dwelling organisms on the Tibetan Plateau
Ke Zhao,
Xin Jing,
Nathan J. Sanders,
Litong Chen,
Yu Shi,
Dan F. B. Flynn,
Yonghui Wang,
Haiyan Chu,
Wenju Liang,
Jin‐Sheng He
Affiliations
Ke Zhao
Department of Ecology College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, and Key Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes of the Ministry of Education Peking University 5 Yiheyuan Road Beijing 100871 China
Xin Jing
Department of Ecology College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, and Key Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes of the Ministry of Education Peking University 5 Yiheyuan Road Beijing 100871 China
Nathan J. Sanders
Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources University of Vermont Burlington Vermont 05405 USA
Litong Chen
Key Laboratory of Adaptation and Evolution of Plateau Biota Northwest Institute of Plateau Biology Chinese Academy of Sciences 23 Xinning Road Xining 810008 China
Yu Shi
State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture Institute of Soil Science Chinese Academy of Sciences Nanjing 210008 China
Dan F. B. Flynn
The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University 1300 Centre Street Boston Massachusetts 02131 USA
Yonghui Wang
Department of Ecology College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, and Key Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes of the Ministry of Education Peking University 5 Yiheyuan Road Beijing 100871 China
Haiyan Chu
State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture Institute of Soil Science Chinese Academy of Sciences Nanjing 210008 China
Wenju Liang
State Key Laboratory of Forest and Soil Ecology Institute of Applied Ecology Chinese Academy of Sciences Shenyang 110164 China
Jin‐Sheng He
Department of Ecology College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, and Key Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes of the Ministry of Education Peking University 5 Yiheyuan Road Beijing 100871 China
Abstract After decades of research, we are starting to understand more about why the number of species varies from place to place on the planet. However, little is known about spatial variation in abundance, especially for soil‐dwelling organisms. In this study, we aimed to disentangle the relative influences of climatic factors, soil properties, and plant diversity on the abundance of soil‐dwelling invertebrates (i.e., nematodes and soil arthropods) at 48 alpine grassland sites on the Tibetan Plateau. We found that the abundance of these two groups of soil organisms was negatively correlated with soil pH and temperature seasonality, and was positively correlated with soil organic carbon (SOC), mean annual precipitation, and plant species richness; there was no effect of mean annual temperature or seasonality in precipitation on the abundance of nematodes or soil‐dwelling arthropods. When we considered only the nematodes, we found that soil pH, mean annual precipitation, temperature seasonality, and SOC were the best predictors of abundance. However, plant species richness was the best predictor of the abundance of soil‐dwelling arthropods. Different orders within the arthropods responded differently to the suite of factors we examined. Taken together, our results suggest that increases in temperature alone might not alter the abundances of soil organisms in these alpine grasslands. Instead, altered precipitation regimes and increases in intra‐annual variation in temperature, changes in plant community diversity, and the resulting changes in soil characteristics (e.g., pH and organic carbon) could reshape soil communities in the Tibetan grassland ecosystems, and likely elsewhere on the planet.