Abundance and diversity of edaphic mites (Arachnida, Acari) under different forest management systems in Indonesia

Abstract

Abstract. Ihsan M, Puspitarini RD, Afandhi A, Fernando I. 2021. Abundance and diversity of edaphic mites (Arachnida, Acari) under different forest management systems in Indonesia. Biodiversitas 22: 3685-3692. Edaphic mites play crucial roles in maintaining ecosystem services that are essential to human needs. However, the conversion of natural habitats followed by agricultural intensification may adversely affect edaphic mites. The objective of this study was to investigate the influence of different management systems on edaphic mite abundance, richness, and diversity in tropical rain forests in Indonesia. There were five forest management systems, which were as follows: secondary forest, production forest (pine monoculture), and three agroforestry systems (pine + coffee, mahogany + coffee, and mahogany + new cocoyam). We established a transect containing five research plots for each forest management system. Litter and soil from each plot were collected from December to March 2021. Temperature, relative humidity, and pH of litter and soil, as well as litter thickness, were measured. We found that edaphic mite abundance, richness, and diversity in the secondary forest were similar to managed forests. However, the aforementioned variables were significantly higher in “pine” systems than in “mahogany” systems. Our analysis evidenced positive correlations between litter thickness and edaphic mite abundance, richness, and diversity. Our findings may assist in selecting the appropriate forest management systems to rationalize the conversion of secondary forests to production forests and agroforestry.

The Influence of Land Management on Soil Mite (Acari: Oribatida, Prostigmata, and Mesostigmata) Communities as Bioindicators for Environmental Conditions

“…This result is contradictory with (Manu et al, 2021) whereas the habitat, stand, and litter type only affected mesostigmatid abundance significantly, but not affected other taxa of soil mite. The abundance and richness of soil mites were not different from five management systems (Roy et al, 2018;Ihsan et al 2021).…”

“…Furthermore, the soil mites separated from soil arthopods were counted on digitally photographed soft ceramic plates, and the collected data was brought to the laboratory for identification up to the morphospecies level, then grouped into the sub order level, consists of oribatida, prostigmata, and mesostigmata. In addition, specimen observation was conducted using the stereo microscope (SCWPG Carton Optical Industries), while taxonomic keys were used for species identification (Zhang, 2003;Krantz & Walter, 2009;Hasegawa et al, 2014;Ihsan et al, 2021), and through online databases (inaturalist.org).…”

Composition and abundance level of pest mites in jasmine gambier (Jasminum officinale) plantation of Purbalingga, Central Java, Indonesia affected by some abiotic factors

“…Leite et al (2022) reported that the gambier jasmine plants require warm and wet environmental conditions such as a temperature of 28-36°C, night 24-30°C during the day and night times a day and so air humidity of 50-80% for growth, unfortunately, the same condition is also favorable for the pest mites. Moreover, low-level of rainfall and humidity are also known to increase the population abundance of various phytophagous mites (Ihsan et al 2021). Furthermore, Kean et al (2019) and Leite et al (2022) suggested that high rainfall is negatively correlated with the population abundance of Tetranychus urticae, or vice versa, T. urticae is very resistant to a high level of rainfall.…”