Abstract
Oribatid mites are tiny arthropods that are common in all soils of the world; however, they also occur in microhabitats above the soil such as lichens, mosses, on the bark of trees and in suspended soils. For understanding oribatid mite community structure, it is important to know whether they are dispersal limited. The aim of this study was to investigate the importance of oribatid mite dispersal using Malaise traps to exclude sole passive wind-dispersal. Oribatid mite communities were collected over a 3-year period from five habitat types (coniferous forests, deciduous forests, mixed forests, meadows, bog/heathlands sites) and three seasons (spring, summer, autumn) in Sweden. Mites entered traps either by walking or by phoresy, i.e., by being attached to flying insects. We hypothesized (1) that oribatid mite communities in the traps differ between habitats, indicating habitat-limited dispersal, and (2) that oribatid mite communities differ among seasons suggesting that dispersal varies due to changing environmental conditions such as moisture or resource availability. The majority of the collected species were not typically soil-living species but rather from habitats such as trees, lichens and mosses (e.g., Carabodes labyrinthicus, Cymbaeremaeus cymba, Diapterobates humeralis and Phauloppia lucorum) indicating that walking into the traps or entering them via phoresy are of greater importance for aboveground than for soil-living species. Overall, oribatid mite communities collected in the traps likely originated from the surrounding local habitat suggesting that long distance dispersal of oribatid mites is scarce. Significant differences among seasons indicate higher dispersal during warm and dry periods of the year. Notably, 16 species of oribatid mites collected in our study were sampled for the first time in Sweden. This study also demonstrates that Malaise traps are a meaningful tool to investigate spatial and temporal patterns of oribatid mite communities.
Highlights
Dispersal is the movement of an organism away from its local area to another patch and is important for survival and reproduction of individuals, for community structure and dynamics of populations as well as for the distribution and evolution of species (Nathan 2001)
We investigated the general importance of dispersal by walking actively or by phoresy for oribatid mites, by comparing communities from Malaise traps of different habitats
Most oribatid mite species occurred in summer (27), eight species occurred in spring, and 14 species in autumn (Table 2)
Summary
Dispersal is the movement of an organism away from its local area to another patch and is important for survival and reproduction of individuals, for community structure and dynamics of populations as well as for the distribution and evolution of species (Nathan 2001). Active and passive dispersal may co-occur if animals like mites and spiders actively take postures or seek out exposed sites, which makes them carried away by wind (Washburn and Washburn 1984; Monteiro et al 2018). Another interaction of active and passive dispersal is phoresy in which an animal (the phoront) actively attaches itself onto a host animal for the purpose of dispersal, enabling it to migrate to new habitats (White et al 2017). This form of dispersal reduces the uncertainty of destination sites compared to passive wind dispersal, because the host organism likely re-visits similar microhabitats at which the phoront may release itself
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