Abstract
ABSTRACT: Spiders are part of the soil biodiversity, considered fundamental to the food chain hierarchy, directly and indirectly influencing several services in agricultural and forest ecosystems. The present study aimed to evaluate the biodiversity of soil spider families and identify which soil properties influence their presence, as well as proposing families as potential bioindicators. Native forest (NF) and reforested sites (RF) with Araucaria angustifolia (Bertol.) Kuntze were evaluated in three regions of the state Sao Paulo, both in the winter and summer. Fifteen soil samples were collected from each forest to evaluate the biological (spiders and microbiological), chemical and physical soil properties, in addition to properties of the litter (dry matter and C, N and S contents). For soil spiders, two sampling methods were used: pitfall traps and soil monoliths. In total, 591 individuals were collected, and distributed in 30 families, of which 306 individuals (22 families) came from pitfall traps and 285 individuals (26 families) from monoliths. Only samples obtained by the monolith method revealed seasonal differences in the mean density and richness of spiders between NF and RF. Canonical discriminant analysis showed the separation of these forests of Araucaria. Principal Component Analysis demonstrated the correlation of a number of spider families with certain soil properties (organic carbon, basal respiration, metabolic quotient, litter carbon, total porosity, bulk density and soil moisture). We identified 10 families (Anapidae, Corinnidae, Dipluridae, Hahniidae, Linyphiidae, Lycosidae, Nemesiidae, Palpimanidae, Salticidae, Scytodidae) that contributed most to separating native forest from the replanted forest, indicating the possibility of the spiders being used as bioindicators.
Highlights
Spiders represent an extremely abundant group of terrestrial arthropod diversity, with more than 48,000 species described at global level so far, distributed over 117 families (World Spider Catalog, 2019)
The abundance of families of soil spiders is higher in native Araucaria forests only in the summer; in winter, there was no difference between the forests studied
Anapidae, Linyphiidae, predominant in Native forest (NF), were the ones that most contributed to the separation between native and reforested forests, showing the possibility of their application as indicators, even when the planted forests are in an advanced stage of regeneration
Summary
Spiders represent an extremely abundant group of terrestrial arthropod diversity, with more than 48,000 species described at global level so far, distributed over 117 families (World Spider Catalog, 2019). They represent a trophic level of consumers in the food chain and play a crucial role due to their predatory nature (Foelix, 2010; Jung et al, 2008a). A number of authors have suggested that the structure of the environment may influence the abundance and richness of spider communities (Foelix, 2010). Spiders have significant ecological importance for terrestrial, agricultural and forest ecosystems, where their role has been increasingly studied, evidencing edaphic factors that influence their presence and may provide useful information for monitoring environmental changes in most terrestrial ecosystems.
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