Soil Warming Elevates the Abundance of Collembola in the Songnen Plain of China

Xiumin Yan,Xiumin Yan,Xiumin Yan,Liang Chang,Zhen Ni,Donghui Wu,Donghui Wu,Kehong Wang,Kehong Wang,Kehong Wang

doi:10.3390/su7021161

Abstract

The effect of soil warming and precipitation control in the context of soil warming on Collembola community was studied in Songnen grassland, China. Treatments included (1) control; (2) soil warming; (3) soil warming with low precipitation; and (4) soil warming with high precipitation. The open top chambers were used to increase the soil temperature, and the low and high precipitation were created by covering 30% of the chamber and artificial addition after rainfall through the three-year long field experiment. Soil samples were taken and collembolans were extracted in the 15th in June, August and October from 2010 to 2012. Abundance of total Collembola and dominant morphospecies Orchesellides sp.1 was significantly increased by soil warming. Total Collembola abundance was not affected by the precipitation. However, the abundance of Mesaphorura sp.1 was significantly increased by warming with low precipitation treatment. Collembola species richness, diversity and evenness were not impacted by any treatment through all the sampling times. These results suggest that more attention should be paid to the Collembola community variation under global warming in the future.

Highlights

Global warming is one of the most significant environmental problems with a strong influence on biodiversity [1,2]
The research was conducted at the Chang Ling grass and pastoral ecological research station (N 44°33′, E 123°31′; elevations is 140 m above sea level) of the Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology (NEIGAE), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), located in the western part of the Songnen Plain
At the end of the experiment, the dominant plant species were Medicago falcate and Sonchus brachyotus; Chloris virgata was completely excluded from the plant community (Table 1)

Summary

Introduction

Global warming is one of the most significant environmental problems with a strong influence on biodiversity [1,2]. Soil temperature and moisture are important environmental factors to soil micro-arthropods life [3], and they have directly and indirectly impact on soil biodiversity and ecosystem functions [4]. It is important to study the response of Collembola to global warming and other environment factors in the context of global warming. Songnen plain is one of the most important grain and forage production base in China. Due to the excessive utilization and development in the Songnen plain, many serious ecological problems (e.g., land degeneration and biodiversity decrease) threaten this area [5]. During the recent 50 years, Songnen plain undergoes dramatically climate warming, for the mean annual temperature, the rate of climate warming is 0.3487 °C/10 years [7,8]. Songnen plain is located in the NECT

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Conclusion