Changes in the soil biotic community are associated with variation in Illicium verum productivity

Site quality for Araucaria angustifolia plantations with subtropical Cambisol is driven by soil organism assemblage and the litter and soil compartments

“…exchangeable Ca and Mg were found with low values into the low site quality stands, due to the litter traits with high contents of lignin (low decomposability), high k-factor, and high C:N ratio. Both compartments combined reduced the refuge for predators such as Araneidae, Acaridae, Carabidae, and Mantidae(Deng et al 2022;Lü et al 2023). Considering some relationships among the soil biota organisms, the soil ecosystem, and the litter traits that we observed in our study, we found negative effects on…”

Site Quality for Araucaria angustifolia Plantations with Subtropical Cambisol Is Driven by Soil Organism Assemblage and the Litter and Soil Compartments

“…The soil chemical properties, especially soil acidity, and the contents of exchangeable Ca and Mg had low values in L-SQ stands due to litter traits with a high lignin content (low decomposability), high k-factor, and high C:N ratio. Both compartments combined reduced the refuge for predators, such as Araneidae, Acaridae, Carabidae, and Mantidae [4,47]. Considering some relationships among the soil biota organisms, soil ecosystem, and litter traits, we found negative effects on these three compartments, as influenced by site quality reduction [67].…”

“…The groups of Arachnids (Acaridae, Araneidae, and Filistatidae-classified as predators), Insects (Formicidae, Isotermidae, Carabidae, Scarabaeidae, Staphylindae, and Mantidae, which are classified as ecosystem engineers, microregulators, litter transformers, and predators), and Myriapods (Scutigeridae-predators and Julidae-litter transformers) were the most affected by reducing the site quality [46]. These changes in the soil biota community structure promoted negative chances for the soil ecosystem [47]. Araucaria angustifolia stands present a wide dissimilarity among the site quality levels [3], and when we decided to start our field study, we expected to find a high impact of site quality on all soil biota functional groups.…”

Stand age and soil organic matter management as driven factors of soil biota community composition and soil chemical properties in a subtropical Acrisol

“…Prey–predator relationships were also evident, such as Pulmonata‐Filistatidae, Lumbricidae‐Filistatidae, and Gyrinidae‐Filistatidae (Li et al., 2022; Watzinger et al., 2023). Moreover, the use of compost, acting as an organic matter resource and energy supply, directly improved the abundance of Scarabaeidae (litter transformers) and Cugygidae (predators) and indirectly enhanced their prey–predator relationship (Cugygidae feeding on pupae and larvae of Scarabaeidae) (Lü et al., 2023; Souza, da Silva, et al., 2023). The energy supply provided by compost in the soil food web created habitat for large‐sized organisms like Scarabaeidae and Cugygidae, classified as resource‐dependent (Forstall‐Sosa et al., 2021; Wan et al., 2022).…”

“…Despite limited reports of the positive effects of stand age on functional group diversity and abundance, a field experiment assessing the effect of stand ages combined with the management of organic residues on the functional groups of soil biota is ongoing in an Acrisol with two stand ages of P. pyrifolia . Soil organisms are sensitive to ecosystem changes that may occur over time, and they play key roles in many agroecosystems worldwide (Lü et al., 2023; Souza, da Silva, et al., 2023).…”