Evaluating the Impact of Long-Term Land Use Change and Age since Disturbance on Soil Faunal Diversity
Soil organisms are the biological drivers of processes and functions that maintain soil properties and ecosystem services. Soil fauna contribute to nutrient turnover, decomposition and other important biogeochemical processes. This investigation assessed the diversity and abundance of soil arthropod...
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MDPI AG
2023-09-01
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| Series: | Forests |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/14/9/1882 |
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| author | Felicity Victoria Crotty Umran Akkan Demirer Stuart Lee Norris Wei Liu Philip James Murray |
| author_facet | Felicity Victoria Crotty Umran Akkan Demirer Stuart Lee Norris Wei Liu Philip James Murray |
| author_sort | Felicity Victoria Crotty |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Soil organisms are the biological drivers of processes and functions that maintain soil properties and ecosystem services. Soil fauna contribute to nutrient turnover, decomposition and other important biogeochemical processes. This investigation assessed the diversity and abundance of soil arthropods (0.1–4 mm) along a chronosequence of land use types covering a relatively small geographical distance but with the same underlying soil type and climatic conditions. The compared habitats and the approximate ages since anthropogenic disturbance were ancient woodland (>200 y), old woodland (<200 y), unimproved semi-natural grassland (>50 y), willow/poplar coppice (>30 y), unimproved permanent pasture (<20 y), improved permanent pasture (<10 y), and recently grazed and reseeded grassland (>2 y), and the soil types of all habitats were the same within a 5 km radius. Land use type and age since anthropogenic disturbance significantly (<i>p</i> < 0.05) influenced the community composition of soil fauna, with richer arthropod communities found in woodlands compared with recently managed grassland. This study has confirmed a significant effect of land use type and age since disturbance on soil faunal diversity and community structure. |
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| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-5c004358e243475f8cf3c2d7e73e87c5 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1999-4907 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T22:44:17Z |
| publishDate | 2023-09-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
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| series | Forests |
| spelling | doaj.art-5c004358e243475f8cf3c2d7e73e87c52023-11-19T10:47:21ZengMDPI AGForests1999-49072023-09-01149188210.3390/f14091882Evaluating the Impact of Long-Term Land Use Change and Age since Disturbance on Soil Faunal DiversityFelicity Victoria Crotty0Umran Akkan Demirer1Stuart Lee Norris2Wei Liu3Philip James Murray4School of Agriculture, Food and Environment, Royal Agricultural University, Cirencester GL7 6JS, UKDepartment of Sustainable Soils and Grassland Systems, Rothamsted Research, North Wyke, Okehampton, Devon EX20 2SB, UKDepartment of Sustainable Soils and Grassland Systems, Rothamsted Research, North Wyke, Okehampton, Devon EX20 2SB, UKJiangxi Provincial Key Laboratory of Silviculture, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang 330045, ChinaSchool of Agriculture, Food and Environment, Royal Agricultural University, Cirencester GL7 6JS, UKSoil organisms are the biological drivers of processes and functions that maintain soil properties and ecosystem services. Soil fauna contribute to nutrient turnover, decomposition and other important biogeochemical processes. This investigation assessed the diversity and abundance of soil arthropods (0.1–4 mm) along a chronosequence of land use types covering a relatively small geographical distance but with the same underlying soil type and climatic conditions. The compared habitats and the approximate ages since anthropogenic disturbance were ancient woodland (>200 y), old woodland (<200 y), unimproved semi-natural grassland (>50 y), willow/poplar coppice (>30 y), unimproved permanent pasture (<20 y), improved permanent pasture (<10 y), and recently grazed and reseeded grassland (>2 y), and the soil types of all habitats were the same within a 5 km radius. Land use type and age since anthropogenic disturbance significantly (<i>p</i> < 0.05) influenced the community composition of soil fauna, with richer arthropod communities found in woodlands compared with recently managed grassland. This study has confirmed a significant effect of land use type and age since disturbance on soil faunal diversity and community structure.https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/14/9/1882biodiversityanthropogenic disturbancechronosequencemanagementsoil fauna |
| spellingShingle | Felicity Victoria Crotty Umran Akkan Demirer Stuart Lee Norris Wei Liu Philip James Murray Evaluating the Impact of Long-Term Land Use Change and Age since Disturbance on Soil Faunal Diversity Forests biodiversity anthropogenic disturbance chronosequence management soil fauna |
| title | Evaluating the Impact of Long-Term Land Use Change and Age since Disturbance on Soil Faunal Diversity |
| title_full | Evaluating the Impact of Long-Term Land Use Change and Age since Disturbance on Soil Faunal Diversity |
| title_fullStr | Evaluating the Impact of Long-Term Land Use Change and Age since Disturbance on Soil Faunal Diversity |
| title_full_unstemmed | Evaluating the Impact of Long-Term Land Use Change and Age since Disturbance on Soil Faunal Diversity |
| title_short | Evaluating the Impact of Long-Term Land Use Change and Age since Disturbance on Soil Faunal Diversity |
| title_sort | evaluating the impact of long term land use change and age since disturbance on soil faunal diversity |
| topic | biodiversity anthropogenic disturbance chronosequence management soil fauna |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/14/9/1882 |
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