Season affects soil oribatid mite communities more than tree diversity in subtropical forests
Yannan Chen,
Ming-Qiang Wang,
Xue Pan,
Cheng Liang,
Zhijing Xie,
Stefan Scheu,
Mark Maraun,
Jun Chen
Affiliations
Yannan Chen
Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100101 Beijing, People’s Republic of China; College of Life Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 101409 Beijing, People’s Republic of China; Johann Friedrich Blumenbach Institute of Zoology and Anthropology, University of Göttingen, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
Ming-Qiang Wang
Key Laboratory of Mountain Ecological Restoration and Bioresource Utilization and Biodiversity Conservation Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 610041 Chengdu, People’s Republic of China; Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100101 Beijing, People’s Republic of China
Xue Pan
Johann Friedrich Blumenbach Institute of Zoology and Anthropology, University of Göttingen, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
Cheng Liang
Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100101 Beijing, People’s Republic of China; College of Life Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 101409 Beijing, People’s Republic of China
Zhijing Xie
Key Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology, Ministry of Education, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130102, People’s Republic of China
Stefan Scheu
Johann Friedrich Blumenbach Institute of Zoology and Anthropology, University of Göttingen, 37073 Göttingen, Germany; Centre of Biodiversity and Sustainable Land Use, University of Gottingen, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
Mark Maraun
Johann Friedrich Blumenbach Institute of Zoology and Anthropology, University of Göttingen, 37073 Göttingen, Germany; Corresponding authors at: Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100101 Beijing, People’s Republic of China (J. Chen), Johann Friedrich Blumenbach Institute of Zoology and Anthropology, University of Göttingen, 37073 Göttingen, Germany (M. Maraun).
Jun Chen
Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100101 Beijing, People’s Republic of China; College of Life Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 101409 Beijing, People’s Republic of China; Corresponding authors at: Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100101 Beijing, People’s Republic of China (J. Chen), Johann Friedrich Blumenbach Institute of Zoology and Anthropology, University of Göttingen, 37073 Göttingen, Germany (M. Maraun).
Biodiversity is declining on a global scale with detrimental effects on ecosystem functioning. Effects of reduced tree diversity on the diversity of aboveground animals have been studied in detail, whereas the response of soil animals remains poorly understood. We analyzed seasonal variations of soil oribatid mite communities as major soil detritivores along a tree diversity gradient as implemented in the Biodiversity - Ecosystem Functioning Experiment in China. A total of 24,898 oribatid mites were collected over two years and eight sampling periods. Generally, density and species richness of oribatid mites significantly differed among the four seasons and were highest in winter. By contrast, tree diversity did not significantly affect the density and species richness of oribatid mites as main factor, but its effect varied with season, however, the variations were generally small. Also, oribatid mite community composition varied with seasons but not significantly with tree diversity. Further, functional traits and functional diversity of oribatid mites significantly changed with seasons, but this varied with tree diversity although these variations were small. Overall, the effect of season on soil oribatid mite communities considerably exceeded that of tree diversity, indicating that oribatid mite communities in soil are mainly structured by seasonal variations in abiotic factors and resources outweighing the role of tree diversity. The results highlight the necessity of considering temporal variations when analyzing relationships between plant diversity and soil animal communities.
