4.7 Article

Variations in trophic niches of soil microarthropods with elevation in two distant mountain regions in Eurasia as indicated by stable isotopes (15N, 13C)

Related references

Note: Only part of the references are listed.
Article Soil Science

New perspectives on soil animal trophic ecology through the lens of C and N stable isotope ratios of oribatid mites

Mark Maraun et al.

Summary: Knowledge of the trophic ecology of soil animals is important for understanding their diversity and functional role in soil food webs. Stable isotope analysis has revolutionized the study of trophic ecology, providing insights into the feeding habits and niche differentiation of oribatid mites. These mites can be classified into six trophic groups, with some species showing trophic plasticity. However, stable isotope analysis has limitations, and other methods such as fatty acid and gut content analyses can complement the study of oribatid mite trophic ecology.

SOIL BIOLOGY & BIOCHEMISTRY (2023)

Article Multidisciplinary Sciences

The global biomass and number of terrestrial arthropods

Yuval Rosenberg et al.

Summary: Insects and other arthropods play a crucial role in terrestrial ecosystems, but there is a lack of data on their global population abundance. Based on a synthesis of thousands of evaluations from around 500 sites worldwide, we estimated the biomass and abundance of terrestrial arthropods across different taxa and habitats. Our findings reveal that there are approximately 1 x 10^19 soil arthropods on Earth, with soil mites and springtails comprising around 95% of this population. The soil contains around 200 million metric tons of dry biomass, with termites contributing approximately 40% and ants accounting for about 10% of the total soil biomass. The global biomass of above-ground arthropods is more uncertain and further research is needed to address this knowledge gap. Overall, these estimates provide important insights into the quantitative understanding of arthropods in terrestrial ecosystems and serve as a baseline for future studies on their decline.

SCIENCE ADVANCES (2023)

Article Soil Science

Changes in diversity and functional groups of soil mite communities are associated with properties of food resources along a subalpine secondary succession

Ajuan Zhang et al.

Summary: Soil animal diversity is influenced by environmental and food diversity. Mites are important in soil communities and play a key role in litter decomposition and nutrient cycling. However, it is unclear if the diversity and quality of mite communities are associated with corresponding food resources across trophic levels.

GEODERMA (2023)

Article Ecology

Opening up new niche dimensions: The stoichiometry of soil microarthropods in European beech and Norway spruce forests

Lara Warnke et al.

Summary: Ecological stoichiometry is a new approach to understand soil animal diversity, and this study revealed the relationship between the chemical composition of soil mites and their ecological niches. The results showed significant differences in stoichiometry among different ecological niches of soil mites, and no significant differences in stoichiometry were found between forest types.

ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION (2023)

Article Ecology

Multiple dimensions of soil food-web research: History and prospects

Anton Potapov et al.

Summary: Soil food webs play a crucial role in soil biodiversity, functioning, and stability, and have been the subject of research for over 35 years. This field has seen diversification across various ecological and theoretical approaches, and there is a need for collaboration and empirical validation to move the field forward. With increasing data availability and public awareness, there is a call for synthesis across disciplines and making soil food-web research more accessible to a wider scientific community.

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SOIL BIOLOGY (2023)

Article Soil Science

Changes in oribatid mite community structure along two altitudinal gradients in Asia and Europe as related to environmental factors

Xue Pan et al.

Summary: The altitude has an impact on the species diversity, community structure, and reproductive mode of soil-living oribatid mites. Higher altitudes are associated with lower species richness, abundance, and a decrease in parthenogenesis. Community composition of oribatid mites also varies with altitude, with high altitude communities becoming more similar. The differences observed in these patterns are mainly due to temperature fluctuations and frost severity.

APPLIED SOIL ECOLOGY (2023)

Article Ecology

Drivers of Collembola assemblages along an altitudinal gradient in northeast China

Zhijing Xie et al.

Summary: This study investigates the diversity and community composition of Collembola along altitudinal gradients in Changbai Mountain. The results suggest that altitude, local habitat-related factors, and climatic variables are important drivers of changes in Collembola communities. Specifically, soil and litter carbon-to-nitrogen ratio and soil pH have positive correlations with Collembola communities at different altitudes.

ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION (2022)

Review Ecology

Disentangling food-web environment relationships: A review with guidelines

Frederico Mestre et al.

Summary: Food webs and their relationship with environmental gradients are still largely unknown. The lack of consistent theories, diverse research objectives, and standardized methodologies severely limit progress in this field. Future efforts should focus on establishing testable predictions, agreed standards for data collection and analysis, and conducting geographically distributed experimental studies of food-web dynamics.

BASIC AND APPLIED ECOLOGY (2022)

Article Biology

Tropical land use alters functional diversity of soil food webs and leads to monopolization of the detrital energy channel

Zheng Zhou et al.

Summary: Agricultural expansion threatens tropical ecosystems by eroding biodiversity and impacting the structure and energetics of soil food webs. This study in Sumatra, Indonesia, found that converting rainforest into plantations led to a shift in carbon sources for animals, with most taxa choosing freshly-fixed plant carbon in plantations. However, earthworms remained unchanged and monopolized the detrital pathway. The functional diversity of soil food webs was associated with litter amount, tree density, and species richness in plantations. Overall, this restructuring of soil food webs highlights the long-term threat to soil functioning and ecosystem stability.

ELIFE (2022)

Article Ecology

Predators minimize energy costs, rather than maximize energy gains under warming: Evidence from a microcosm feeding experiment

Matthew L. Meehan et al.

Summary: Climate warming can affect predator-prey interactions and predator feeding behavior by increasing metabolic demands. This study found that predators changed their prey selection under warming conditions, favoring small-bodied prey over larger-bodied prey, despite the potential for greater energetic gains from larger prey. These findings suggest that predators balance their increased metabolic demands by minimizing energy lost during feeding. The changes in predator feeding behavior with climate warming may have implications for food web dynamics and ecosystem-level processes.

FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY (2022)

Article Ecology

Changes in microbial community structure and functioning with elevation are linked to local soil characteristics as well as climatic variables

Johannes Lux et al.

Summary: Mountain forests are important for carbon storage and biodiversity, but they face threats from insects and climate change. This study investigated microbial communities in different soil layers along an elevational gradient at Changbai Mountain, China. The findings showed significant changes in microbial community structure and functioning, which were influenced by factors such as climate, soil nutrients, and resource availability.

ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION (2022)

Article Ecology

High consistency of trophic niches in generalist arthropod species (Oribatida, Acari) across soil depth and forest type

Jing-Zhong Lu et al.

Summary: This study tested the trophic consistency in oribatid mite species and found that they occupy virtually identical trophic niches irrespective of soil depth. The tree species influenced the C-13 values of oribatid mites, but had little effect on their N-15 values. The study suggests that trophic position can be used as a trait in community analysis of oribatid mites across forest ecosystems, and that the trophic niches of generalist species can be highly consistent regardless of the environment.

ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION (2022)

Article Ecology

Jack-of-all-trades is parthenogenetic

Mark Maraun et al.

Summary: Sexual reproduction is more costly than asexual reproduction, but why asexual reproduction is more common in some animal lineages remains a mystery. By studying oribatid mites, it was found that asexual species possess a widely adapted general-purpose genotype, supporting the general-purpose genotype hypothesis.

ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION (2022)

Article Ecology

Trophic structure and origin of resources of soil macrofauna in the salt marsh of the Wadden Sea: a stable isotope (15N, 13C) study

Maria Rinke et al.

Summary: This study investigated spatial and temporal changes in stable isotope signatures in salt marsh soil macrofauna. The results show that the resource use of salt marsh macrofauna is mainly based on autochthonous resources rather than allochthonous resources. However, there are variations in the use of allochthonous resources in certain species across both temporal and spatial scales.

BMC ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION (2022)

Article Ecology

Elevation and aspect determine the differences in soil properties and plant species diversity on Himalayan mountain summits

Maroof Hamid et al.

Summary: The study revealed that elevation and aspect significantly influence soil physico-chemical properties and species richness on mountain summits. Summits with distinct species pools possess different soil properties, and soil temperature plays a crucial role in determining the distribution of soil parameters and species richness. Overall, the mosaic of micro-climatic conditions driven by elevation and aspect favors specific soil properties, which in turn shape species diversity patterns on mountain summits.

ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH (2021)

Editorial Material Multidisciplinary Sciences

Tracking, targeting, and conserving soil biodiversity

Carlos A. Guerra et al.

SCIENCE (2021)

Article Green & Sustainable Science & Technology

Geochemical Behavior of Different Chemical Elements during Weathering of the Basalts in Changbai Mountain, Northeast China

Tian Lan et al.

Summary: Rock weathering is the main source of element geochemical cycle, and has a significant impact on the environment. The study of basalt weathering profiles in Changbai Mountain area showed that basalt experienced moderate chemical weathering under warm and humid climate conditions, with leaching of major elements such as silicon and aluminum. The distribution of rare earth elements in the weathering products resembles that of alkali-basalt, with a clear fractionation between light and heavy REE.

SUSTAINABILITY (2021)

Article Ecology

Multidimensional trophic niche revealed by complementary approaches: Gut content, digestive enzymes, fatty acids and stable isotopes in Collembola

Anton M. Potapov et al.

Summary: The study explores the correlation and complementarity of trophic niche parameters tackled by four complementary methodological approaches, highlighting the importance of the power of method combination in complex natural food webs such as soil ecosystems where omnivore species with cryptic feeding habits coexist.

JOURNAL OF ANIMAL ECOLOGY (2021)

Article Ecology

Stable isotopes of amino acids indicate that soil decomposer microarthropods predominantly feed on saprotrophic fungi

Melanie M. Pollierer et al.

Summary: Soil microarthropods mainly rely on saprotrophic fungi rather than ectomycorrhizal fungi for nutrition, with plant detritus serving as a significant basal resource. The study provides insight into the food web structure of soil microarthropods and the relative importance of mycorrhizal and saprotrophic fungi for soil food web nutrition, addressing a long-standing mystery in soil food web ecology.

ECOSPHERE (2021)

Article Ecology

Variation in Community-Level Trophic Niches of Soil Microarthropods With Conversion of Tropical Rainforest Into Plantation Systems as Indicated by Stable Isotopes (15N, 13C)

Alena Krause et al.

Summary: The study investigated shifts in the community-level trophic niche of oribatid mites with the conversion of rainforest into rubber and oil palm plantations. The results showed that oribatid mites shifted their diet towards predation and scavenging, as well as towards the plant-based energy channel with the transformation of rainforest into plantations. This suggests that the conversion of rainforest into plantations leads to significant changes in the community-level trophic niches of mesofauna detritivores.

FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION (2021)

Article Ecology

Size compartmentalization of energy channeling in terrestrial belowground food webs

Anton M. Potapov et al.

Summary: Size-structured food webs show that energy channeling varies between small and large consumers, with aquatic ecosystems displaying size structure while terrestrial food webs show trophic position independent of body size. Belowground communities exhibit negative correlation between trophic position and body mass in invertebrates, along with nonlinearity in community metabolism and trophic levels across all size classes. This suggests different compartments in belowground food webs based on size, contributing to ecosystem functions and responding differently to environmental factors.

ECOLOGY (2021)

Article Multidisciplinary Sciences

Human disturbance increases trophic niche overlap in terrestrial carnivore communities

Philip J. Manlick et al.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (2020)

Review Fisheries

Using stable isotope data to advance marine food web modelling

Stacey A. McCormack et al.

REVIEWS IN FISH BIOLOGY AND FISHERIES (2019)

Article Soil Science

A methodological framework to embrace soil biodiversity

Stefan Geisen et al.

SOIL BIOLOGY & BIOCHEMISTRY (2019)

Review Geosciences, Multidisciplinary

Geological and climatic influences on mountain biodiversity

Alexandre Antonelli et al.

NATURE GEOSCIENCE (2018)

Review Ecology

Diet tracing in ecology: Method comparison and selection

Jens M. Nielsen et al.

METHODS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION (2018)

Article Multidisciplinary Sciences

The structure of salt marsh soil mesofauna food webs - The prevalence of disturbance

Kristin Haynert et al.

PLOS ONE (2017)

Article Biodiversity Conservation

Quantifying the multiple facets of isotopic diversity: New metrics for stable isotope ecology

Julien Cucherousset et al.

ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS (2015)

Article Soil Science

Trophic structure of oribatid mite communities from six different oak forests (Quercus robur)

Elena Corral-Hernandez et al.

SOIL BIOLOGY & BIOCHEMISTRY (2015)

Editorial Material Ecology

Into darkness: unravelling the structure of soil food webs

Ulrich Brose et al.

OIKOS (2014)

Article Biochemical Research Methods

Combined 13C and 15N isotope analysis on small samples using a near-conventional elemental analyzer/isotope ratio mass spectrometer setup

Reinhard Langel et al.

RAPID COMMUNICATIONS IN MASS SPECTROMETRY (2014)

Article Soil Science

Trophic stability of soil oribatid mites in the face of environmental change

Huijie Gan et al.

SOIL BIOLOGY & BIOCHEMISTRY (2014)

Letter Geosciences, Multidisciplinary

Biodiversity from mountain building

Carina Hoorn et al.

NATURE GEOSCIENCE (2013)

Article Biology

Climate change impacts on body size and food web structure on mountain ecosystems

Miguel Lurgi et al.

PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES (2012)

Article Ecology

Trophic level scales positively with body size in fishes

Tamara N. Romanuk et al.

GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY (2011)

Article Agronomy

Soil organic-matter stocks and characteristics along an Alpine elevation gradient

Ika Djukic et al.

JOURNAL OF PLANT NUTRITION AND SOIL SCIENCE (2010)

Article Multidisciplinary Sciences

Source Partitioning Using Stable Isotopes: Coping with Too Much Variation

Andrew C. Parnell et al.

PLOS ONE (2010)

Review Geography, Physical

Can carbon-13 in large herbivores reflect the canopy effect in temperate and boreal ecosystems? Evidence from modern and ancient ungulates

Dorothee G. Drucker et al.

PALAEOGEOGRAPHY PALAEOCLIMATOLOGY PALAEOECOLOGY (2008)

Article Biology

Sexual reproduction prevails in a world of structured resources in short supply

S. Scheu et al.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES (2007)

Review Ecology

Body size in ecological networks

G Woodward et al.

TRENDS IN ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION (2005)

Article Ecology

Determining trophic niche width: a novel approach using stable isotope analysis

S Bearhop et al.

JOURNAL OF ANIMAL ECOLOGY (2004)

Article Biodiversity Conservation

Accounting for spatial pattern when modeling organism-environment interactions

TH Keitt et al.

ECOGRAPHY (2002)

Article Physics, Multidisciplinary

Robust patterns in food web structure -: art. no. 228102

J Camacho et al.

PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS (2002)

Review Ecology

The long and short of food-chain length

DM Post

TRENDS IN ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION (2002)

Article Ecology

Latitude, elevation and body mass variation in Andean passerine birds

TM Blackburn et al.

GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY (2001)