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Oribatid mites reveal that competition for resources and trophic structure combine to regulate the assembly of diverse soil animal communities.

ABSTRACT: The role of niche partitioning in structuring species-rich soil animal communities has been debated for decades and generated the "enigma of soil animal diversity." More recently, resource-based niche partitioning has been hypothesized to play a very limited role in the assembly of soil animal communities. To test this hypothesis, we applied a novel combination of stable isotopes and null models of species co-occurrence to quantify the extent of resource niche partitioning on a diverse oribatid mite community sampled from mature oak woodland.We asked whether species aggregate or segregate spatially and how these patterns correlated with the abundance of estimated trophic guilds. We also estimated the effects of environmental variables on community structure.All measured environmental variables accounted for 12% of variance in community structure, including 8% of pure spatial structure unrelated to measured environmental factors and 2% of pure environmental variance unrelated to spatial variation. Co-occurrence analysis revealed 10 pairs of species that aggregated and six pairs of species that were spatially segregated. Values of ?¹⁵N indicated that five out of the 10 pairs of aggregated species occupied the same trophic guild, while values of ?¹³C indicated that species in these five pairs consumed resources of different quality, supporting a significant role of resource-based niche partitioning. Also, one of the five pairs of segregated species occupied the same trophic guild but had overlapping ?¹³C values suggesting that these species do not co-occur locally and thus minimize competition for shared resources.Partitioning of resources plays an underestimated role in soil microarthropod communities and different local communities consisted of the same trophic guilds with species identity changing from place to place. The sum of resource partitioning, multi-trophic interactions, and microscale environmental variability in the environment is a viable solution to the enigma of soil animal diversity.

SUBMITTER: Magilton M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6662270 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Oribatid mites reveal that competition for resources and trophic structure combine to regulate the assembly of diverse soil animal communities.

Magilton Matthew M Maraun Mark M Emmerson Mark M Caruso Tancredi T

Ecology and evolution 20190704 14

The role of niche partitioning in structuring species-rich soil animal communities has been debated for decades and generated the "enigma of soil animal diversity." More recently, resource-based niche partitioning has been hypothesized to play a very limited role in the assembly of soil animal communities. To test this hypothesis, we applied a novel combination of stable isotopes and null models of species co-occurrence to quantify the extent of resource niche partitioning on a diverse oribatid ...[more]

PMID: 31380092

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Project description:Global change processes affect seasonal dynamics of salt marshes and thereby their plant and animal communities. However, these changes have been little investigated for microarthropod communities. We studied the effect of seasonality and changes in sea level on oribatid mites in the natural salt marsh and on artificial islands in the back-barrier environment of the island Spiekeroog (Wadden Sea, Germany). Three zones of the artificial islands were filled with transplanted sods from the lower salt marsh zone and thereby exposed to three different inundation frequencies. We hypothesized that oribatid mite communities will differ along the natural salt marsh vegetation zones [upper salt marsh (USM), lower salt marsh (LSM), pioneer zone (PZ)], which are influenced by different tidal regimes. Accordingly, total oribatid mite densities declined from the USM and LSM to the PZ. Similarly, oribatid mite species compositions changed along the salt marsh transect and also responded to variations in inundation frequency in LSM on artificial islands with typical species of the USM, LSM and PZ being Multioppia neglecta (USM), Hermannia pulchella (LSM), Zachvatkinibates quadrivertex (LSM, PZ) and Ameronothrus schneideri (LSM, PZ). Oribatid mite density in the salt marsh and on the artificial islands was at a maximum in winter and spring; this was due in part to high density of juveniles, pointing to two reproductive periods. We hypothesized that oribatid mite trophic structure changes due to variations in abiotic (e.g., tidal dynamics, temperature) and biotic conditions (e.g., resource availability). Stable isotope (15N, 13C) and neutral lipid fatty acid analyses indicated that oribatid mite species have different diets with e.g., Z. quadrivertex feeding on macroalgae and fungi, A. schneideri feeding on microalgae and bacteria, and Scheloribates laevigatus and M. neglecta feeding on dead organic matter, bacteria and fungi. Overall, the results indicate that oribatid mite species in salt marshes are affected by changes in environmental factors such as inundation intensity, with the effects being most pronounced in species with narrow trophic niches and limited niche plasticity. The results also indicate that oribatid mite communities of the LSM respond little to short-term (one year) changes in inundation frequency.

Dataset Information

Oribatid mites reveal that competition for resources and trophic structure combine to regulate the assembly of diverse soil animal communities.

Publications

Oribatid mites reveal that competition for resources and trophic structure combine to regulate the assembly of diverse soil animal communities.

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