Jonathan F. Jupke, Sebastian Scheu, Erin K. Cameron, Nico Eisenhauer, Helen R. P. Phillips, Jörg Römbke, Michiel Rutgers, Ralf B. Schäfer, Martin H. Entling
{"title":"Typical earthworm assemblages of European ecosystem types","authors":"Jonathan F. Jupke, Sebastian Scheu, Erin K. Cameron, Nico Eisenhauer, Helen R. P. Phillips, Jörg Römbke, Michiel Rutgers, Ralf B. Schäfer, Martin H. Entling","doi":"10.1111/ejss.13584","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>For nature conservation and planning, terrestrial ecosystems are commonly classified based on their plant communities. Although soils are fundamental to ecosystem functioning, ecosystem classifications based on soil organisms are rare, and it is poorly understood whether their assemblage compositions follow existing classification schemes. We examined whether commonly used ecosystem types capture variation in earthworm (Lumbricidae) assemblages—a crucial biotic component of soil ecosystems. To this end, we created four ecosystem classifications by combining large-scale climatic classifications (Biogeographic Regions [BGR] and Holdridge Life Zones [HLZ]) with small-scale land cover classifications (CORINE Land Cover [CLC] and European Nature Information System [EUNIS]). European earthworm assemblage data from the sWORM and Edaphobase databases were analysed for variation in composition within and among ecosystem types, using Permutational Analysis of Variance and Analysis of Similarities. Additionally, we used Typical Species Analysis to establish typical earthworm assemblages (TAs) for each ecosystem type. Ecosystem classifications using the BGR explained more variance than HLZ, but HLZ showed a higher separation of assemblages between ecosystem types. The differentiation between Atlantic and Continental climates in the BGR could explain the superiority over the HLZ, which had only one category for the cool temperate zone of our study region. The typical assemblages contained on average six species, with some habitat generalists present in most. This study shows that combinations of ecosystem properties from different spatial scales can be used to distinguish between earthworm assemblages at the European level. However, earthworm assemblages across Europe were highly similar due to low species richness and the dominance of a few widespread species. This limits the possibility of applying TAs on large spatial scales, for example, for environmental monitoring. We suggest that future studies should explore the use of more species-rich groups of soil organisms to characterize ecosystem types.</p>","PeriodicalId":12043,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Soil Science","volume":"75 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.0000,"publicationDate":"2024-10-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ejss.13584","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"European Journal of Soil Science","FirstCategoryId":"97","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ejss.13584","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"SOIL SCIENCE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
For nature conservation and planning, terrestrial ecosystems are commonly classified based on their plant communities. Although soils are fundamental to ecosystem functioning, ecosystem classifications based on soil organisms are rare, and it is poorly understood whether their assemblage compositions follow existing classification schemes. We examined whether commonly used ecosystem types capture variation in earthworm (Lumbricidae) assemblages—a crucial biotic component of soil ecosystems. To this end, we created four ecosystem classifications by combining large-scale climatic classifications (Biogeographic Regions [BGR] and Holdridge Life Zones [HLZ]) with small-scale land cover classifications (CORINE Land Cover [CLC] and European Nature Information System [EUNIS]). European earthworm assemblage data from the sWORM and Edaphobase databases were analysed for variation in composition within and among ecosystem types, using Permutational Analysis of Variance and Analysis of Similarities. Additionally, we used Typical Species Analysis to establish typical earthworm assemblages (TAs) for each ecosystem type. Ecosystem classifications using the BGR explained more variance than HLZ, but HLZ showed a higher separation of assemblages between ecosystem types. The differentiation between Atlantic and Continental climates in the BGR could explain the superiority over the HLZ, which had only one category for the cool temperate zone of our study region. The typical assemblages contained on average six species, with some habitat generalists present in most. This study shows that combinations of ecosystem properties from different spatial scales can be used to distinguish between earthworm assemblages at the European level. However, earthworm assemblages across Europe were highly similar due to low species richness and the dominance of a few widespread species. This limits the possibility of applying TAs on large spatial scales, for example, for environmental monitoring. We suggest that future studies should explore the use of more species-rich groups of soil organisms to characterize ecosystem types.
期刊介绍:
The EJSS is an international journal that publishes outstanding papers in soil science that advance the theoretical and mechanistic understanding of physical, chemical and biological processes and their interactions in soils acting from molecular to continental scales in natural and managed environments.