Responses of soil microarthropods to warming and increased precipitation in a semiarid temperate steppe

Warming favours small-bodied organisms through enhanced reproduction and compositional shifts in belowground systems

“…The majority of literature reporting effects of experimental warming on soil microarthropods is negative for patterns of richness and abundance (Haimi et al, 2005;Bokhorst et al, 2008;Briones et al, 2009;Kardol et al, 2010). However, warming-induced reductions in richness and abundance often occur in soil when they are concomitant with decreases in soil moisture (Blankinship et al, 2011;Wu et al, 2014), and it is well established that drought conditions negatively impact soil microarthropods (Blankinship et al, 2011;Lindo et al, 2012). In peatland systems, as used here, reductions in soil moisture can benefit soil microarthropods by increased habitable pore space and aerobic conditions (Turnbull and Lindo, 2015).…”

“…Warming-induced changes in abundance are often functional group or taxon-specific, leading to changes in community structure through altered food resource availability (Bokhorst et al, 2008;Briones et al, 2009;Wu et al, 2014). Lindo et al (2012) observed a loss of large-bodied species, including mesostigmatid predators under drought conditions, which was associated with changes in the community body size spectra, and thought to arise from changes in basal resources.…”

“…How changes in soil biodiversity will be affected by global climate change (changes in atmospheric temperature, carbon dioxide concentration, and precipitation) is an active topic given that current rates of climate change are unparallelled in recent geologic time, leading to shifts in many ecological communities. Previous studies have shown that warming tends to have an overall negative effect on species richness and soil fauna abundance (Haimi et al, 2005;Bokhorst et al, 2008;Briones et al, 2009;Kardol et al, 2011) associated with reduced soil moisture under higher temperatures (Blankinship et al, 2011;Wu et al, 2014). Drought conditions impact and alter soil microarthropod community composition (Blankinship et al, 2011;Lindo et al, 2012), but under moisture saturated conditions, drying can enhance pore space, benefitting some species (Turnbull and Lindo, 2015).…”

“…However, warminginduced changes are often functional group or taxon-specific, leading to changes in community structure concomitant with changes in food resource availability (Bokhorst et al, 2008;Briones et al, 2009;Wu et al, 2014). For instance, non-random loss of top predators in soil communities has been shown under habitat loss and fragmentation (Gonzalez et al, 1998), as well as drought conditions and warming (Lindo et al, 2012), leading to corresponding trophic cascade prey release (Staddon et al, 2010), and alterations in C and N dynamics (Mulder and Elser, 2009;Staddon et al, 2010).…”

Effect of coupled reduced irrigation and nitrogen fertilizer on soil mite community composition in a wheat field

“…Based on previous studies Wu et al, 2014), we suspect that reduced irrigation and nitrogen fertilizer addition primarily changed soil mite community by affecting SOM, TN, and the CN ratio. To clarify the influence of reduced irrigation and nitrogen fertilizer addition on soil mite community composition, more relevant studies should be conducted in the future.…”