Changes in Collembola richness and diversity along a gradient of land-use intensity: A pan European study

Abstract

Changes in Collembola richness and diversity along a land-use intensity gradient were studied in eight European countries (). In each country a set of six 1 km 2 land-use units (LUUs) were selected forming a gradient ranging from natural forest to agricultural dominated landscapes, passing through mixed-use ones. In addition to data on Collembola, detailed information regarding landscape diversity and structure was collected for each LUU. A total of 47,774 individuals were identified from 281 species. Collembola reacted not only to changes in the diversity of the landscape, but also to the composition of that diversity and the area occupied by each land-use type at each LUU. Although species richness patterns were not concordant among the different countries, the total number of species per LUU (landscape richness) was generally higher in natural forests and mixed-used landscapes, and lower in agricultural dominated landscapes. Moreover, high richness and diversity of ARTICLE IN PRESS www.elsevier.de/pedobi (J.P. Sousa).Collembola at each LUU were associated with a diverse landscape structure, both in terms of number of patches and patch richness. Despite this comparable species richness between mixed-use landscapes and those dominated by natural forests, average species richness on forested areas (local richness) decreased along the gradient, showing that forest patches on mixed-use landscapes support a lower richness than in landscapes dominated by forest. This aspect is important when addressing the role of native forests in structuring biodiversity in disturbed and fragmented landscapes. Although a diverse landscape can support a high biodiversity, the results suggest that intensive fragmentation should be avoided with the risk of collapsing local species richness with the consequent result for regional biodiversity.

Collembola Community Structure as a Tool to Assess Land Use Effects on Soil Quality

“…Domínguez et al (2014) reported a density of <6,000 ind m -2 of Collembola and there were similar abundances in natural grasslands, organic farming, and no-tillage, with significantly less abundance in conventional tillage. Nevertheless, the density is relevant and might indicate changes between the systems studied, as reported by Sousa et al (2006), where the abundance of Collembola decreased along a gradient of soil-use intensification in a typical Mediterranean landscape dominated by cork-oak.…”

“…In agricultural systems, springtails are sensitive to different soil use practices (Bandyopadhyaya et al, 2002;Sousa et al, 2006;Chang et al, 2013). A few studies have reported on the Collembola community structure in non-inversion deep tillage and conventional plowing (Petersen, 2002a), agricultural land use as arable land, permanent grasslands, shrublands, and woodlands on a slope (Parisi et al, 2005), landscape diversity (Querner et al, 2013), and different land use types (forests, grasslands, and arable lands) (Martins da Silva et al, 2015).…”

Talajlakó mezofauna (Collembola) vizsgálatok a Lajta Project területén

“…A mezőgazdasági művelés alatt álló területeken a talajdegradáció számos formája jelentkezik (talajtömörödés, szerkezeti degradáció, szerves anyag csökkenés, kemikáliák által okozott terhelés), ami visszatükröződik az ugróvillások abundanciájában és diverzitásában is (GILLER et al, 1997;SOUSA et al, 2006, FLOHRE at al. 2011, PAUL et al 2011.…”

The use of a functional approach as surrogate of Collembola species richness in European perennial crops and forests

“…Extraction of collembolans was performed either using Berlese funnels (Fafe PT, Sever PT, Lousã PT, Idanha PT and Almeirim PT) or a McFadyen High Gradient extractor (the remaining sites). Detailed characterization of the different forest sites can be seen in the following papers: Fafe PT (Sousa et al, 2003), Sever PT and Lousã PT (Da Gama et al, 1995), Idanha PT (Sousa and da Gama, 1994), Almeirim PT (Sousa et al, 1997), LU1 PT, LU2 PT, LU1 Finland, LU2 Finland, LU1 France, LU2 France, LU1 Hungary, LU2 Hungary, LU1 Ireland, LU2 Ireland, LU1 Spain, LU2 Spain, LU1 Swiss, LU2 Swiss, LU1 UK, LU2 UK (Sousa et al, 2006). For the perennial crops, nine olive groves were selected (AVB PT, AVP PT, CED PT, GUR PT, PAR PT, SPB PT, SPP PT, VAL PT, SUC PT) all located in the North East region in Portugal (Carvalho, 2012).…”