{"title":"Soil properties shape soil microarthropod abundance but jointly regulate diversity with climate and vegetation along altitudinal climate zones","authors":"Jinhao Ma, Zhenzhen Shao, Xue Wei, Xiao Ren, Yuying Wang, Donghui Wu, Pengfei Wu","doi":"10.1007/s11104-025-07284-y","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<h3 data-test=\"abstract-sub-heading\">Background and aims</h3><p>Soil microarthropods play a crucial role in soil ecological processes and are easily influenced by environmental changes. However, the distribution patterns of soil microarthropod communities along climatic zones and the major drivers remain unclear.</p><h3 data-test=\"abstract-sub-heading\">Methods</h3><p>The soil microarthropod communities were investigated on the eastern slope of Mount Gongga, including subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forest (SEB, 1600 m), subtropical evergreen and deciduous broad-leaved mixed forest (SEDB, 2000 m), warm temperate deciduous broad-leaved forest (WTDB, 2400 m), mid-temperate coniferous and broad-leaved mixed forest (MTC, 2800 m) and cold-temperate coniferous forest (CTC, 3200 m).</p><h3 data-test=\"abstract-sub-heading\">Results</h3><p>The differences in the taxonomic composition of soil microarthropod communities between different altitudinal climate zones increased with the interval distance, with the dominant genera abundances (<i>Hypogastrura</i> and <i>Folsomia</i>) varying significantly. The community abundance exhibits an unimodal pattern along the altitudinal zones with maximum values occurring in the WTDB. Alpha diversity stabilizes from the SEB to MTC, but declines significantly in the CTC, while the beta diversity increases slightly from the SEB to WTDB and decreases in the MTC and CTC. The taxonomic composition and abundance of soil microarthropod communities are mainly determined by soil properties, e.g., pH, soil moisture and temperature, K content, while the alpha and beta diversity are mainly affected by the combined and independent effects of climate, vegetation types and soil properties, respectively.</p><h3 data-test=\"abstract-sub-heading\">Conclusion</h3><p>These findings suggest that the climate, vegetation types and soil properties have specific effects on the spatial distributions of soil microarthropod communities along an altitudinal climate zone.</p><h3 data-test=\"abstract-sub-heading\">Graphical Abstract</h3>\n","PeriodicalId":20223,"journal":{"name":"Plant and Soil","volume":"55 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.9000,"publicationDate":"2025-02-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Plant and Soil","FirstCategoryId":"97","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-025-07284-y","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"AGRONOMY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background and aims
Soil microarthropods play a crucial role in soil ecological processes and are easily influenced by environmental changes. However, the distribution patterns of soil microarthropod communities along climatic zones and the major drivers remain unclear.
Methods
The soil microarthropod communities were investigated on the eastern slope of Mount Gongga, including subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forest (SEB, 1600 m), subtropical evergreen and deciduous broad-leaved mixed forest (SEDB, 2000 m), warm temperate deciduous broad-leaved forest (WTDB, 2400 m), mid-temperate coniferous and broad-leaved mixed forest (MTC, 2800 m) and cold-temperate coniferous forest (CTC, 3200 m).
Results
The differences in the taxonomic composition of soil microarthropod communities between different altitudinal climate zones increased with the interval distance, with the dominant genera abundances (Hypogastrura and Folsomia) varying significantly. The community abundance exhibits an unimodal pattern along the altitudinal zones with maximum values occurring in the WTDB. Alpha diversity stabilizes from the SEB to MTC, but declines significantly in the CTC, while the beta diversity increases slightly from the SEB to WTDB and decreases in the MTC and CTC. The taxonomic composition and abundance of soil microarthropod communities are mainly determined by soil properties, e.g., pH, soil moisture and temperature, K content, while the alpha and beta diversity are mainly affected by the combined and independent effects of climate, vegetation types and soil properties, respectively.
Conclusion
These findings suggest that the climate, vegetation types and soil properties have specific effects on the spatial distributions of soil microarthropod communities along an altitudinal climate zone.
期刊介绍:
Plant and Soil publishes original papers and review articles exploring the interface of plant biology and soil sciences, and that enhance our mechanistic understanding of plant-soil interactions. We focus on the interface of plant biology and soil sciences, and seek those manuscripts with a strong mechanistic component which develop and test hypotheses aimed at understanding underlying mechanisms of plant-soil interactions. Manuscripts can include both fundamental and applied aspects of mineral nutrition, plant water relations, symbiotic and pathogenic plant-microbe interactions, root anatomy and morphology, soil biology, ecology, agrochemistry and agrophysics, as long as they are hypothesis-driven and enhance our mechanistic understanding. Articles including a major molecular or modelling component also fall within the scope of the journal. All contributions appear in the English language, with consistent spelling, using either American or British English.