Spatial abundance pattern of a common soil arthropod changes suddenly with season in a tropical rainforest

Pequeno, Pedro Aurélio Costa Lima; Franklin, Elizabeth; Norton, Roy A.; Morais, José Wellington de; Guilherme, Diego Rodrigues

doi:10.1016/j.pedobi.2017.07.002

Cited by 8 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Together, these results suggest a mechanistic interpretation for the main patterns observed in R. ovulum counts. The highest counts occurred in plateaus during drier, hotter months, whereas both habitats converged toward low counts during wetter, cooler months (Figure a; Pequeno et al, ). The difference between habitats reflects partly the higher extraction efficiency in clayish plateaus, and partly the higher litterfall in that habitat.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…Previous studies have suggested that, in temperate regions, soil microarthropod population dynamics are mainly shaped by density dependence and temperature (Choi et al, ; Ferguson & Joly, ; Pfingstl, ; Stamou & Sgardelis, ; Stamou et al, ). In contrast, studies on tropical soil fauna have generally attributed a stronger role to rainfall and moisture (Burgess et al, ; Frith & Frith, ; Levings & Windsor, ; Pequeno et al, ; Wiwatwitaya & Takeda, ). These conclusions have limitations, for example, analyses which confound the effects of correlated variables, or biases induced by imperfect detection.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…In central Amazonia, R. ovulum takes around six weeks to develop from egg to adult, producing clonal offspring during the next three months (Beck ). In the same region, adults peak in abundance for two to three months (Pequeno et al, ), suggesting an average adult life span of similar duration in the field and, thus, an average life cycle of four to five months.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Much of animal abundance occurs in the litter–soil interface, where densities of arthropods such as mites and springtails can easily reach tenths to hundreds of thousands of individuals per square meter (Takeda & Abe, ). Studies from temperate regions have suggested important roles for density dependence and temperature in shaping soil animal population dynamics (Choi, Moorhead, Neher, & Ryoo, ; Ferguson & Joly, ; Kuznetsova, ; Pfingstl, ; Stamou & Sgardelis, ; Stamou, Stamou, Papatheodorou, Argyropoulou, & Tzafestas, ), whereas studies from tropical regions have suggested a major role for hydrology, for example, rainfall and floods (Burgess, Ponder, & Goddard, ; Frith & Frith, ; Levings & Windsor, ; Pequeno & Franklin, ; Pequeno, Franklin, Norton, de Morais, & Guilherme, ; Wiwatwitaya & Takeda, ). However, in many cases, the potential for confounding effects arising from natural correlations among environmental variables has not been accounted for.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We hypothesized that population growth should increase with litterfall, but generally decrease with temperature, assuming that tropical species operate near their upper critical thermal limit (Deutsch et al, ; Kingsolver et al, ). Likewise, we expected population growth to decrease with rainfall due to impaired survival and/or reproduction by prolonged waterlogging and hypoxia (Pequeno et al, ). Lastly, is R. ovulum population growth subject a trade‐off between food supply and thermal suitability?…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Determinants of intra‐annual population dynamics in a tropical soil arthropod

2019

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Studies on inter‐annual dynamics of populations from temperate regions have shown that density dependence and climate effects are relatively common, albeit weak. Yet, for short‐lived organisms, intra‐annual variation may be at least as important. Furthermore, tropical species commonly experience temperatures close to their upper thermal limit and thus may be more likely to experience heat stress. Here, we used the soil mite Rostrozetes ovulum to investigate the drivers of intra‐annual population dynamics in an Amazonian rain forest. We sampled 3,600 soil cores from 20 transects during 13 months, obtaining 180 mite counts. Next, we built a dynamic N‐mixture model accounting for different detection probabilities between soil types. In a Bayesian framework, we used this model to estimate (a) the strength of density dependence and (b) per capita growth rates, which were then tested against environmental variables. We found that the intra‐annual population dynamics of R. ovulum were weakly density dependent. Further, per capita growth rates increased with resource supply (litterfall) and decreased with maximum temperature over much of the observed thermal range, although these effects explained relatively little variance. Yet, the seasonal correlation between these factors created a trade‐off, so that realized population growth was highest when neither resource supply nor thermal suitability was optimal. Overall, our results suggest that the mechanisms shaping soil animal population dynamics may be surprisingly similar across latitudes. Our model offers a starting point for analyses of soil animal counts when extraction from soil samples is imperfect.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%