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Wehner K, Heethoff M, Brückner A. Seasonal fluctuation of oribatid mite communities in forest microhabitats. PeerJ. 2018;6:e4863doi: 10.7717/peerj.4863.
Wehner, K., Heethoff, M., & Brückner, A. (2018). Seasonal fluctuation of oribatid mite communities in forest microhabitats. PeerJ, 6e4863. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4863
Wehner, Katja, et al. "Seasonal fluctuation of oribatid mite communities in forest microhabitats." PeerJ vol. 6 (2018): e4863. doi: https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4863
Wehner K, Heethoff M, Brückner A. Seasonal fluctuation of oribatid mite communities in forest microhabitats. PeerJ. 2018 Jun 04;6:e4863. doi: 10.7717/peerj.4863. eCollection 2018. PMID: 29888124; PMCID: PMC5991301.
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PeerJ. 2018 Jun 04;6:e4863. doi: 10.7717/peerj.4863. eCollection 2018.

Seasonal fluctuation of oribatid mite communities in forest microhabitats.

PeerJ

Katja Wehner, Michael Heethoff, Adrian Brückner

Affiliations

  1. Ecological Networks, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany.

PMID: 29888124 PMCID: PMC5991301 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.4863

Abstract

Oribatid mites are abundant and diverse decomposers in almost all terrestrial microhabitats, especially in temperate forests. Although their functional importance in the decomposition system in these forests has been investigated, spatio-temporal patterns of oribatid mite communities inhabiting different microhabitats have largely been neglected. Therefore, we (i) investigated seasonal fluctuation (monthly over one year) in oribatid-mite community structure and specificity to three microhabitats (moss, dead wood and litter) and (ii) analyzed the influence of air temperature and overall air humidity on seasonal community changes. In total, 57,398 adult oribatid mite individuals were collected. Total abundance, species richness and diversity differed among microhabitats. Seasonal changes were most pronounced in moss and least in litter. While overall air humidity had no influence on species distribution and community changes, air temperature positively influenced species richness and diversity, again most pronounced in moss. The calculated environmental temperature occurrence niche showed that 35% of adult oribatid mite species occurred at higher air temperatures. Furthermore, interaction/bipartite networks were more generalized-i.e., species were more equally distributed among moss, dead wood and litter-when ambient air temperatures were higher. This pattern is probably due to the dispersal ability of adult oribatid mites, i.e., species enter a dispersal mode only at higher air temperatures.

Keywords: Acari; Dead wood; Environmental niche; Forest microhabitats; Litter; Moss; Network analysis; Oribatida; Relative humidity; Temperature

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare there are no competing interests.

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