Multiple environmental controls explain global patterns in soil animal communities

Alice S A Johnston,Richard M Sibly

doi:10.1007/s00442-020-04640-w

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.

Highlights

Soil animals play important roles in ecosystem functions such as carbon and nutrient cycling, water regulation and primary production
The data reveal that larger soil animal groups (e.g., Coleoptera, A hierarchical linear mixed effect model was used to test the importance of environmental controls (MAT, MAP, soil moisture, SOC, pH, total N, total P, C:N, N:P, C:P and litter layer) on mass–abundance relationships for each soil animal group (Ngroup = 117)
Our study reveals how the body-size spectra of soil animal communities converge across globally distributed sites (Fig. 1 and Table S2)

Summary

Introduction

Soil animals play important roles in ecosystem functions such as carbon and nutrient cycling, water regulation and primary production. The composition of soil animal communities strongly influences ecosystem multifunctionality (Wagg et al 2014). Of different body size ranges, display divergent responses to global environmental changes (Blankinship et al 2011; Eisenhauer et al 2012a, b). Shifts in soil animal community composition could have dramatic consequences for terrestrial ecosystem functioning and stability in the future (Sjursen et al 2005; Suttle et al 2007; Briones et al 2009; Eisenhauer et al 2014; Handa et al 2014). Little is known about the environmental controls that shape entire soil animal communities at a global scale

Methods

Results

Conclusion