Ecosphere (Dec 2021)
Connectivity affects species turnover in soil microarthropod communities during Mediterranean forest establishment
Abstract
Abstract Environmental conditions and the spatial arrangement of habitats are thought to play a major role in shaping community assembly during habitat construction and may be key in establishing time lags between habitat establishment and species colonization (colonization credits), and between local species extinction and habitat loss (extinction debts). Despite the importance of soil organisms in ecosystem functioning and their limited dispersal ability, these kinds of shifts in microarthropod communities have rarely been explored. We assessed the roles of the environment and connectivity in soil microarthropod community composition during habitat regeneration in Mediterranean forests. We selected three different forest patches in six study areas: one long‐established (pre‐1956; LONG) control forest patch, and two recent forest patches (post‐1956), one connected (CONN) to and one isolated (ISOL) from the LONG. In each patch, we determined soil temperature, moisture, pH, and fertility and collected soil samples for microarthropod extraction. Our results indicate that the densities of fauna such as oribatid mites and proturans with limited mobility were lower in ISOL than in other forest types; as well, oribatid populations in ISOL were less diverse. Arthropods with greater mobility than the precedent groups, such as collembolans and non‐oribatid mites, were present in lower densities in LONG than in other forest types. Oribatid assemblages in the two recent forest patches were more similar to one another than to those in the LONG. Recent forests were mostly dominated by known pioneer species, while LONG was dominated by the typical species found in well‐developed organic soils. In conclusion, oribatid density and richness had recovered surprisingly well in CONN, more so than in ISOL and to a similar extent as LONG. However, oribatid assemblages in the recent forests are different from those in long‐established forests due to the potential colonization credits and extinction debts triggered by soil development.
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