How land-use intensity affects sexual and parthenogenetic oribatid mites in temperate forests and grasslands in Germany

Abstract

Intensive land use has been shown to alter the composition and functioning of soil communities. Due to their low dispersal ability, oribatid mites are particularly vulnerable to land-use intensification and species which are not adjusted to management-related disturbances become less abundant. We investigated how different land-use parameters in forests and grasslands affect oribatid mite diversity and abundance, with a focus on: (1) species-level impacts, by classifying species as increasing (‘winners’) or decreasing (‘losers’) in abundance with higher land-use intensity, and (2) reproductive impact, by investigating whether sexual and parthenogenetic species react differently. We collected 32,542 adult oribatid mites in 60 forests and grasslands of known land-use intensity in two regions of Germany. Diversity and total abundance as well as the proportion of sexual species were higher in forests than in grasslands. Diversity declined with higher land-use intensity in forests, but increased with higher mowing and fertilization in grasslands. Depending on land-use parameter and region, abundance either declined or remained unaffected by increasing intensity. Gravidity was higher in sexual than in parthenogenetic species and sexuals had 1.6× more eggs per gravid female. Proportions of sexual species and gravid females decreased with land-use intensity in forests, but increased with mowing in grasslands. At the species level, 75% of sexuals and 87.5% of parthenogens were ‘losers’ of higher percentages of dead wood originating from management-related disturbances. Across land-use parameters and habitats, a similar proportion of sexual and parthenogenetic oribatid mite species were ‘losers’ of high land-use intensity. However, ‘winner’ species were more common among sexuals.

Impact of forest disturbance on microarthropod communities depends on underlying ecological gradients and species traits

“…Literature evidence showed that post-disturbance communities are mainly constituted by few high-adaptable species, such as Tectocepheus sp. (mites) and some species belonging to Entomobrydae (springtails) ( Maraun et al, 2003 ), or by species with disturbance-adapted strategies, such as parthenogenetic reproduction ( Wehner et al, 2021a ). On the contrary, other studies found that richness of springtails increased in disturbed plot ( Urbanovičová, Kováč & Miklisová, 2010 ; Urbanovičová, Miklisová & Kováč, 2014 ), and others found divergent responses in abundance and species richness ( Čuchta, Miklisová & Kováč, 2012 ).…”

A female heterogametic ZW sex-determination system in Acariformes

“…Some oribatid mite species show an equal 1:1 sex ratio, whereas for most species female-biased (72%-69%) sex ratios are observed (Domes et al 2007). Interestingly, a large number of asexual species exist in the Oribatida that reproduce in the absence of sex over a substantial amount of time (Brandt et al 2021; Wehner et al 2021; Öztoprak et al 2023).…”