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Multiple environmental controls explain global patterns in soil animal communities
- Source :
- Oecologia
- Publication Year :
- 2019
-
Abstract
- Soil animals play important roles in ecosystem functioning and stability, but the environmental controls on their communities are not fully understood. In this study, we compiled a dataset of soil animal communities for which the abundance and body mass of multiple soil animal groups were recorded. The mass–abundance scaling relationships were then used to investigate multiple environmental controls on soil animal community composition. The data reveal latitudinal shifts from high abundances of small soil animals at high latitudes to greater relative abundances of large soil animals at low latitudes. A hierarchical linear mixed effects model was applied to reveal the environmental variables shaping these latitudinal trends. The final hierarchical model identified mean annual temperature, soil pH and soil organic carbon content as key environmental controls explaining global mass–abundance scaling relationships in soil animal communities (R2c = 0.828, Ngroup = 117). Such relationships between soil biota with climate and edaphic conditions have been previously identified for soil microbial, but not soil animal, communities at a global scale. More comprehensive global soil community datasets are needed to better understand the generality of these relationships over a broader range of global ecosystems and soil animal groups. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s00442-020-04640-w) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
- Subjects :
- 0106 biological sciences
Range (biology)
Soil biology
Soil pH
Biology
010603 evolutionary biology
01 natural sciences
complex mixtures
Latitude
Soil
Abundance (ecology)
Animals
Community composition
Ecosystem
Soil animals
Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Soil Microbiology
Ecology
Soil organic carbon
Temperature
Community Ecology–Original Research
Edaphic
04 agricultural and veterinary sciences
Soil carbon
Biota
Carbon
Mass–abundance
Size spectra
040103 agronomy & agriculture
0401 agriculture, forestry, and fisheries
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 14321939 and 00298549
- Volume :
- 192
- Issue :
- 4
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Oecologia
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....f910afd5c676463e1c80b62d804a4ce0