Habitat Structure, Quality and Landscape Predict Species Richness and Communities of Collembola in Dry Grasslands in Austria.

Pascal Querner,Harald Zechmeister,Norbert Milasowszky,Thomas Wrbka,Norbert Sauberer,Ingrid Schmitzberger,Wolfgang Willner,Christine Jakomini,Klaus Zulka,Max Abensperg-Traun

doi:10.3390/insects9030081

Abstract

We assessed the relationships between site size, habitat quality, landscape factors (fragmentation, landscape diversity) and species richness in communities of Collembola in 50 small dry grassland habitat patches in an agricultural landscape of eastern Austria. Grasslands in that region were once widespread and extensive, but have become increasingly fragmented and isolated. We hypothesized that dry grassland springtails species richness is significantly correlated with site variables (soil properties, habitat quality) and that the size of grassland sites is positively correlated with species richness. We used pitfall traps in 50 dry grasslands in differently structured agricultural landscapes and tested total abundance and three species richness measures: (1) the number of dry grassland specialist species; (2) total number of dry grassland species and (3) overall species richness. In the multivariate correlation models, we found that all species richness measures were significantly related to the plant species richness, a shape parameter of the sites, soil properties such as humus, temperature, sand and gravel content and the landscape variable reflecting isolation (distance to the nearest large dry grassland area). This landscape variable indicates that neighbouring grasslands are influencing the species richness of the sites. This may be a result of passive wind dispersal across the landscape or historic connection of the small sites with much larger dry grasslands. The size of the site did not show any significant correlation with total, dry grassland specialist, dry grassland generalist or generalist species richness. The small size of Collembola might explain these findings, because they have high population densities even in small patches.

Highlights

Soil is part of most terrestrial ecosystems and supports above-ground biotic patterns and processes.A variety of animals inhabit the soil and contribute significantly to the decomposition of dead organic matter [1], nutrient cycles [2], the development of soil microstructure [3,4] and to the functioning of the ecosystem as a whole [5]
We hypothesized that dry grassland springtails species richness is significantly correlated with site variables and that the surrounding landscape is not a relevant factor
We found that the dry grassland vegetation, soil temperature and soil texture were the most important predictors for dry grassland Collembola community composition; all can be related to habitat quality for the Collembola, and that a habitat quality gradient is separating the sites along one ordination axis

Summary

Introduction

Soil is part of most terrestrial ecosystems and supports above-ground biotic patterns and processes.A variety of animals inhabit the soil and contribute significantly to the decomposition of dead organic matter [1], nutrient cycles [2], the development of soil microstructure [3,4] and to the functioning of the ecosystem as a whole [5]. Collembola often form the most abundant arthropod group in the soil (104 –105 individuals m−2 ; [2]). They belong to the soil mesofauna (body size of 0.2–2 mm) with a species richness of up to 60 species in a beech forest of 0.5 ha [6]. They live in the soil pores, the litter layer, on the soil surface, and on vegetation [7]. Parameters at the local scale with the highest influence are soil acidity, vegetation type, moisture and humus form [14,15]

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