Regional Conditions and Land-Use Alter the Potential Contribution of Soil Arthropods to Ecosystem Services in Grasslands

Birkhofer, Klaus; Dietrich, Christof P.; John, Katharina; Schorpp, Quentin; Zaitsev, Andrey S.; Wolters, Volkmar

doi:10.3389/fevo.2015.00150

Cited by 28 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 59 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The main challenge of SIA is to identify and control the sources of variation in isotopic signatures to correctly estimate trophic relationships, particularly if samples are collected over a larger geographic range (Birkhofer et al., ). Researchers should incorporate laboratory measurements of fractionation factors in their study system if no appropriate estimates exist (Martínez‐del‐Río, Wolf, Carleton, & Gannes, ).…”

Section: Stable Isotope Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Methods to identify the prey of invertebrate predators in terrestrial field studies

Birkhofer

Bylund

Dalin

et al. 2017

Ecology and Evolution

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Predation is an interaction during which an organism kills and feeds on another organism. Past and current interest in studying predation in terrestrial habitats has yielded a number of methods to assess invertebrate predation events in terrestrial ecosystems. We provide a decision tree to select appropriate methods for individual studies. For each method, we then present a short introduction, key examples for applications, advantages and disadvantages, and an outlook to future refinements. Video and, to a lesser extent, live observations are recommended in studies that address behavioral aspects of predator–prey interactions or focus on per capita predation rates. Cage studies are only appropriate for small predator species, but often suffer from a bias via cage effects. The use of prey baits or analyses of prey remains are cheaper than other methods and have the potential to provide per capita predation estimates. These advantages often come at the cost of low taxonomic specificity. Molecular methods provide reliable estimates at a fine level of taxonomic resolution and are free of observer bias for predator species of any size. However, the current PCR‐based methods lack the ability to estimate predation rates for individual predators and are more expensive than other methods. Molecular and stable isotope analyses are best suited to address systems that include a range of predator and prey species. Our review of methods strongly suggests that while in many cases individual methods are sufficient to study specific questions, combinations of methods hold a high potential to provide more holistic insights into predation events. This review presents an overview of methods to researchers that are new to the field or to particular aspects of predation ecology and provides recommendations toward the subset of suitable methods to identify the prey of invertebrate predators in terrestrial field research.

show abstract

Section: Stable Isotope Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Methods to identify the prey of invertebrate predators in terrestrial field studies

Birkhofer

Bylund

Dalin

et al. 2017

Ecology and Evolution

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This explanation would imply that the successional process does not produce entropy in litter and soil layers or that ground arthropods are not sensitive to such a process. This hypothesis appears to be implausible due to strong experimental evidence attesting to the contrary 1,4,17,18,27,57,60,64 . The alternative explanation assumes that the cause-effect relationship exists, but W , A and H are unable to properly assess entropy production in soil communities.…”

Section: Entropy Production In Soil Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biological communities as interacting compartments: thermodynamic properties and diversity indices

Meloni

Nakamura

Martinêz

2017

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Diversity indices provide simple and powerful metrics for assessing biological communities. Based on entropy measures, the approach considers statistical and thermodynamic inferences to deduce ecological patterns. However, concerns exist regarding the accuracy of diversity indices. Because relative quantities depend on the sorting of organisms (e.g., guilds and species) and their interactions, field observations carry inherent imprecision, thus leading to misinterpretation. Here, we present a framework that is able to appropriately achieve the thermodynamic properties in ecological systems and ensure the inference power. We demonstrate that effective abundances rather than raw abundances provide a trustful estimator of probabilities, which is evaluated through massive tests. We use empirical and synthetic data to show the advantages and reliability of this new framework under a broad range of conditions. The tests demonstrate that the replication principle is always optimized by the new estimator. Compared to other methods, this approach is simpler and reduces the importance of schemes used for sorting organisms. We highlight the robustness and the valor of effective abundances for ecological contexts: i) to assess and monitor the biodiversity, ii) to define the best sorting of organisms according to maximum entropy principles, and iii) to link local to regional diversity (α-, β-, and γ-diversity).

show abstract

“…However, comparisons of land-use effects among microhabitats (grassland vs. forests) are less frequent and studies have focused on general community measures, such as abundance and diversity. Few studies have looked at functional composition or different life-history strategies so far (but see Birkhofer et al 2016 , 2017 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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.

show abstract

Regional Conditions and Land-Use Alter the Potential Contribution of Soil Arthropods to Ecosystem Services in Grasslands

Cited by 28 publications

References 59 publications

Methods to identify the prey of invertebrate predators in terrestrial field studies

Methods to identify the prey of invertebrate predators in terrestrial field studies

Biological communities as interacting compartments: thermodynamic properties and diversity indices

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

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About