Spatial variance in soil microarthropod communities: Niche, neutrality, or stochasticity?

Abstract

We studied geographic patterns in the soil microarthropods associated with moss carpets on exposed rocky outcrops in southwestern British Columbia, Canada. We related microarthropod composition, abundance, and species richness to 15 ecological variables relevant to either spatial or environmental filtering. Our survey identified 352 morphospecies in 32 sites spanning a 130- × 60-km area. We tested whether the relative importance of spatial and environmental factors was concordant between community composition, abundance, species richness, and 3 major taxonomic groups (Oribatida, Mesostigmata, Collembola). The results depended on the variance partitioning methods used and whether composition was defined by species abundance or presence. Distance-based Mantel tests showed that dissimilarity in species composition between sites was better predicted by spatial distance than by environmental dissimilarity. In contrast, variance partitioning of ordinated abundance data concluded that environmental rather than spatial variables explained most variance in the composition of total microarthropod, especially Collembola, assemblages. Total abundance and species richness were only weakly correlated across space, even though both were explained by environmental factors such as temperature and soil moisture. Given the surprising contradictions between methods, we suggest that different analyses should always be compared to fully uncover the spatial and environmental factors structuring communities.