Responses of oribatid mites to warming in boreal peatlands depend on fen type

Barreto, Carlos; Branfireun, Brian A.; McLaughlin, James W.; Lindo, Zoë

doi:10.1016/j.pedobi.2021.150772

Cited by 17 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…This is likely due to the greater mobility of mesofauna, which could have more easily avoided drought in the bryosphere by moving to the humus layer, where moisture content is higher and more stable than the in the bryosphere (Lindo et al 2012 ; Grau-Andrés et al 2021b ). Drought increased overall mesofaunal abundance mainly through promoting Oribatid mites, which were the most abundant mesofaunal group, consistent with previous bryosphere research (Lindo and Gonzalez 2010 ; Barreto et al 2021 ). The observed increase in mesofaunal diversity with drier conditions has also been previously reported in moss/soil mesocosms (Turnbull and Lindo 2015 ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

“…This could indicate a drought-induced shift towards a more fungal-based energy channel in the bryosphere, as has been observed in soil (de Vries et al 2012 ). Overall, our results support the view that drought affects mesofauna indirectly through changing food resources and trophic interactions (Holmstrup et al 2013 ; Wu et al 2014 ; Barreto et al 2021 ), rather than through direct effects.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

“…Nevertheless, the abundance of Oribatid mites, and of total mesofauna, responded to precipitation frequency but not volume. This could be due to a combination of two factors: first, moisture levels across both volume levels were within the tolerance range of Oribatid mites (Kardol et al 2011 ; Barreto et al 2021 ); and second, food supply was enhanced under more frequent drying-rewetting cycles (Slate et al 2019 ). In total, our results suggest that functional group identity may determine whether the main effects of volume and/or frequency, as well as their interactive effects, drive the response of bryosphere fauna to changing precipitation regimes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Responses of bryosphere fauna to drought across a boreal forest chronosequence

et al. 2022

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Projected changes in precipitation regimes can greatly impact soil biota, which in turn alters key ecosystem functions. In moss-dominated ecosystems, the bryosphere (i.e., the ground moss layer including live and senesced moss) plays a key role in carbon and nutrient cycling, and it hosts high abundances of microfauna (i.e., nematodes and tardigrades) and mesofauna (i.e., mites and springtails). However, we know very little about how bryosphere fauna responds to precipitation, and whether this response changes across environmental gradients. Here, we used a mesocosm experiment to study the effect of volume and frequency of precipitation on the abundance and community composition of functional groups of bryosphere fauna. Hylocomium splendens bryospheres were sampled from a long-term post-fire boreal forest chronosequence in northern Sweden which varies greatly in environmental conditions. We found that reduced precipitation promoted the abundance of total microfauna and of total mesofauna, but impaired predaceous/omnivorous nematodes, and springtails. Generally, bryosphere fauna responded more strongly to precipitation volume than to precipitation frequency. For some faunal functional groups, the effects of precipitation frequency were stronger at reduced precipitation volumes. Context-dependency effects were found for microfauna only: microfauna was more sensitive to precipitation in late-successional forests (i.e., those with lower productivity and soil nutrient availability) than in earlier-successional forests. Our results also suggest that drought-induced changes in trophic interactions and food resources in the bryosphere may increase faunal abundance. Consequently, drier bryospheres that may result from climate change could promote carbon and nutrient turnover from fauna activity, especially in older, less productive forests.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Responses of bryosphere fauna to drought across a boreal forest chronosequence

et al. 2022

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“…The vast majority of studies on mites in peatlands have only identified adults to species (Barreto et al, 2021 ; Donaldson, 1996 ; Lehmitz, 2014 ; Lehmitz et al, 2020 ; Markkula, 2014 ; Markkula et al, 2018 , 2019 ; Minor et al, 2016 , 2019 ; Philippov et al, 2021 ; Solhøy, 1979 ). Some studies, however, indicated the importance of including juvenile instars.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inclusion of juvenile stages improves diversity assessment and adds to our understanding of mite ecology – A case study from mires in Norway

Seniczak

Iturrondobeitia

et al. 2022

Ecology and Evolution

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Arachnid orders, Mesostigmata, Trombidiformes, and Sarcoptiformes, commonly known as ‘mites’, are abundant in mires, both as adults and as juveniles. However, due to the challenges of identification, the juvenile forms are often excluded from analyses. This is the first study in mires that included all three mite orders identified to the species level, including juvenile instars. We aimed to compare how diversity and the response to ecological variables differed if only the adults (ad) vs. the total number of specimens (ad+juv) are considered. Samples of 20 Sphagnum species (five subgenera) were collected and mites were extracted using Berlese funnels. Overall, nearly 60,000 mites were analyzed; of these Mesostigmata made up 1.87% of the total, Trombidiformes −0.27%, and Sarcoptiformes −97.86%. The study revealed 154 species (33 Mesostigmata, 24 Trombidiformes, and 97 Sarcoptiformes), the highest diversity of mites ever reported from mires. The inclusion of juveniles increased observed species richness by 6%, with 10 species (one Mesostigmata, six Trombidiformes, and three Sarcoptiformes) represented only by juvenile forms. Seventeen species are new to Norway (four Mesostigmata, one Sarcoptiformes, and 12 Trombidiformes, including five undescribed species of Stigmaeidae and Cunaxidae). Four of these were represented in the samples only by juveniles. Including the juveniles explained a greater amount of the variability of Trombidiformes (explanatory variables account for 23.60% for ad, and 73.74% for ad+juv) and Mesostigmata (29.23% − ad, 52.91% − ad+juv), but had less of an impact for Sarcoptiformes (38.48% − ad, 39.26% − ad+juv). Locality, Sphagnum subgenus and species, wetness, and trophic state significantly affected the mite communities and should be taken into consideration when studying mires. Since juvenile stages contribute significantly to mite diversity in mires, they should also be included in mite studies in other habitats.

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“…Soil organisms interact with each other in a food web with links of different strengths between the individual components (Scheu 1998;. From the perspective of soil microarthropods, some of these links may be particularly vulnerable to a decrease in soil moisture (Barreto et al 2021). Bacteria and nematodes, for example, need water films between soil particles to move, grow and survive , and thus are only available as a food resource for microarthropods at sufficiently high soil moisture levels.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Response of Soil Microarthropods to Drought in Arable Fields

Meyer¹

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In the face of current as well as projected increased frequencies and severities of droughts the interest in responses of the belowground system to such profound changes in environmental conditions has risen. The heavily disturbed soils of agricultural fields deserve special attention since they seem especially vulnerable and are of crucial importance for future crop production. Soil organisms mediate a number of functions in soil, hence, in order to develop strategies for mitigating detrimental drought effects on agricultural systems, it is essential to better understand their response to drought and how this may be modulated by interactive factors. GENERAL INTRODUCTION1.1 CLIMATE CHANGE Droughts are the result of several forces that are altered by global climate change. During the last decades temperature increased and precipitation became more variable, hence, it is no surprise that droughts have become more frequent and intensive (IPCC 2021). In the future, even under conservative scenarios for climate change, drought is predicted to further increase in frequency and severity within the current century. For Europe models using differently weighted indices consistently project increasing duration, frequency and affected area of drought (Samaniego et al. 2018). However, the magnitude of this increase is spatially and temporally different. Generally, extreme dry, but also extreme wet years are projected to become more frequent with more pronounced dry years in Southern Europe and more pronounced wet years in Northern Europe (Russo et al. 2013; Spinoni et al. 2015). Yet, drought is predicted to increase in spring and summer all over Europe under a moderate climate change scenario (Spinoni et al. 2018). Drought is still not uniquely defined; thus, different modelling approaches focus on different indicators. For belowground systems soil moisture is likely to be the most crucial measure, which is projected to decrease in all seasons in Southern Europe, in summer in Western and Central Europe and in spring in Northern Europe (Ruosteenoja et al. 2018). Generally, episodes with anomalously low moisture are expected to become more frequent in all regions of Europe. Such, in part, profound effects on environmental conditions in the belowground systems are likely to also affect soil organisms with potential differences between different regions of Europe.

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Responses of oribatid mites to warming in boreal peatlands depend on fen type

Cited by 17 publications

References 56 publications

Responses of bryosphere fauna to drought across a boreal forest chronosequence

Responses of bryosphere fauna to drought across a boreal forest chronosequence

Inclusion of juvenile stages improves diversity assessment and adds to our understanding of mite ecology – A case study from mires in Norway

Response of Soil Microarthropods to Drought in Arable Fields

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