Compositional patterns in Holarctic peat bog inhabiting oribatid mite (Acari: Oribatida) communities

Soil inhabiting oribatid mites (Acari: Oribatida) are one of the most interesting groups of animals because of their ecological characteristics at the community level. However, existing knowledge does not provide comprehensive explanations of the mechanisms underlying their community or metacommunity structure. The aim of this study is to investigate peat bog inhabiting oribatid mite metacommunity distribution throughout the Holarctic region. Species incidence data was collected (mainly from published sources) for 46 peat bog localities, comprising a total of 410 species. Characteristics of species composition (coherence, turnover and boundary clumping) were analyzed to reveal patterns of peat bog oribatid metacommunity for different ecological guilds. We also applied correlation and regression analysis to detect whether peat bog oribatid communities show latitudinal gradient and distance decay in compositional similarity. Analysis of metacommunity structure showed non-random structure for all ecological guilds studied with dominating nested and Clementsian patterns. No significant evidence was found for latitudinal gradients in species composition whereas non-linear distance decay in compositional similarity is a common phenomenon for peat bog oribatid communities. We discuss these metacommunity patterns within the framework of existing hypotheses and conclude that the community level structure for peat bog oribatid species is largely determined by interspecific interactions and common biogeographical history, whereas metacommunity patterns are the result of postglacial colonization processes. (C) 2012 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.