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The seasonal and vertical distribution of the mites extracted from the soil and litter at a grassland site in Manisa was investigated for the period of May 2001-April 2002. The soil was sampled at four depths (litter, 0-5 cm, 5-10 cm and 10-20 cm). The vertical and seasonal distributions of mites were significant among Mesostigmata, Prostigmata, Or...
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... are one of the major biomes in Turkey, representing about 15.9% of the land [1]. Grassland soil mites are the most diverse and abundant among arthropods [2]. The seasonal and vertical distribution of the acarine population in the soil has been studied by many researchers [3-10]. Most soil arthropods are found in the upper layers of soil profiles in close association with the litter and organic horizons [4,11-14]. There are a number of soil conditions affecting the distribution and abundance of soil animals. Some factors, such as organic matter content and porosity, remain relatively constant with time for a particular soil at a particular depth, while others, such as soil water content and soil temperature, show seasonal changes [14]. Some researchers have demonstrated a relationship between numbers of arthropods and soil moisture or temperature [11,12,15,16]. The mite fauna of grassland soils in Turkey is poorly known. The present study pro- vides additional information on the seasonal and vertical distribution of soil mites at the grassland site, and three components of their environment: organic matter, soil temperature and soil moisture. This paper follows Krantz and Walter’s classification [17]. The study site is located near the Celal Bayar University campus, 38 40 47 N, 27 ° 18 59 E. The elevation is 25 m. The climate is cold and wet in winter, hot and dry in summer conditions. The soil profile of the study site is given in Figure 1. Four soil horizons were determined in the study site. They are shown below, respectively: L: Litter layer consisting of the remnant of herbaceous plants (0.5-1 cm). A: Light brown (2.5 y 7/2), extensive fibrous and thin root system, sandy soil (0-40 cm). AC: Yellow-brown (2.5 y 8/2), moderate and weak root system, sandy soil (40-60 cm). C1: Medium brown (2.5 y 6/2), no root system, argillaceous sandy soil (60-90 cm). C2: Dark brown (2.5 y 6/2), no root system (90 cm and deeper). The soil samples were collected each month over a 12 month sampling period (May 2001-April 2002). Samples of litter and soil were taken by using a sampling cube (dimensions of 10 10 10 cm). Litter and soil layers of 0-5 cm, 5-10 cm and 10-20 cm at three different depths were collected, then they were put in plastic bags and were brought to the laboratory. The second sampling was done at each of the soil depths to determine some of the physico-chemical properties of the soil. The soil samples were extracted separately in Tullgren funnels for a period of seven days. The mites were deposited in 70% alcohol bottles. After this, the mites were poured into petri dishes, and examined under the stereomicroscope using pipettes and needles. Adult mites from different soil layers were collected and labeled. The soil moisture was determined gravimetrically. The organic matter content was measured by burning. The soil temperature was determined with a soil thermometer at different depths. The percentage distribution of individuals within orders collected from the study site is given in Figure 2. The maximum number of individuals was found in both litter and in 10-20 cm depth. Figure 3 indicates the numbers of individuals in orders according to layers. Mesostigmata were found in maximum numbers in litter (Figure 5). Oribatida were found most abundance in litter and in 10-20 cm depth (Figure 5). Astigmatina and Trombidiformes were found in almost all layers of the soil (Figure 5). Astigmatina were found in autumn, winter and spring but not in summer. The space and time locations of Astigmatina were as below: 10-20 cm depth in May, 5-10 cm depth in September and litter in December (Figures 6, 8). Trombidiformes were found at lower depth in summer but found at the highest in winter, autumn and spring. This order represents the vertical distribution from May 2001 to April 2002 (Figures 6, ...
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... It is also known that Stigmaeidae is the most abundant and most diverse family in Raphignathoidea, and that Eustigmaeus is one of the most common genera in this family (Fan et al., 2016). Seasonal distributions of some mites have been investigated in different countries by several researchers (i.e., Stamou and Sgardelis, 1989;Lee et al., 1993;Gergócs et al., 2011;Önen and Koç, 2011;Wehner et al., 2018). In this context, two studies generated in Turkey have been received attention. ...
This study was carried out to examine the relationships between the distributions of raphignathoid mite (Ac-ari: Raphignathoidea) species and their temporal and environmental site factors (i.e. season, habitat type, and altitude) in Pülümür Valley and its immediate environs, Turkey. Data was collected from 306 samples from the various locations in the study area. 70 raphignathoid mite species were identified. The most common raphignathoid species, genus, and family are Neognathus terrestris, Eustigmaeus, and Stigmaeidae, respectively. It has been also found that the greatest number of raphignathoid mite specimens has been encountered in autumn, followed by spring, summer, and winter, respectively.
Before applying the statistical analysis, rare species (i.e., the species having less than 5% frequency value) were omitted from the data matrix. Thus, the first (original) matrix size was reduced from 70⨉306 to 20⨉242. Elevation is a continuous variable whereas seasons and habitat types are nominal data. Therefore, each of the seasons (winter, spring, summer, and autumn), and each of habitat types [i.e., litter, soil, soil and organic components, mixed material consisting of moss and liken, and the others (manure and ant nest)] were inserted as binary data [present (1), absent (0)] in the data matrix.
Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CANOCA) was applied to define the species-site relationships. Findings indicate that Caligonella haddadi, Neognathus terrestris, Cryptognathus lagena, Raphignathus gracilis, and Stigmaeus devlethanensis are significantly associated with moss and lichen habitat whereas litter, grassy and mossy soil are more suitable habitat types for Favognathus amygdalus, F. cucurbita, Raphignathus kuznetzovi, Eustigmaeus dogani, E. pinnatus, E. segnis, Ledermuelleri-opsis aminiae, L. ayyildizi, and Storchia robusta. In addition to this, three species Favognathus cucurbita, Eustigmaeus segnis, and Ledermuelleriopsis plumosus are positively and six species Caligonella humilis, Neognathus terrestris, Favognathus amygdalus, Raphignathus gracilis, Raphignathus kuznetzovi and Ledermuelleriopsis aminiae are negatively related to elevation .
... Researchers highlighted that it is possible to predict the impact of habitat changes on specific soil organisms depending on their ecologies [20,24]. If we consider the research made on the Mesostigmata fauna in grassland ecosystems-these studies highlighted the influence of local and large-scale drivers on these invertebrate communities, but they were only conducted in a few countries in Europe, e.g., the U.K., Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Ireland, and Georgia [18,[25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33], as well as elsewhere throughout the world, such as in New Zealand, Canada and Turkey [34][35][36][37][38][39]. Researchers studied the influences of grazing intensity, fertilisation, and different abiotic factors on the Mesostigmata communities. ...
... Researchers studied the influences of grazing intensity, fertilisation, and different abiotic factors on the Mesostigmata communities. Other scientists researched the structural, seasonal, and vertical distributions of the mite populations from different types of grasslands [33,39,40]. In Romania, studies on mesostigmatid mites have focused on qualitative and quantitative data [41,42] or on the influences of heavy metal pollution [13,15] and other climatic factors on their communities [14]. ...
The main objective of the study was to analyse, for the first time in Romania, the relationships between five experimental grasslands and Mesostigmata fauna, considering: (1) the structural differences between mite communities; (2) the variations in some important abiotic factors (vegetation cover, soil temperature, soil moisture content, pH, soil resistance at penetration); and (3) the influence of these abiotic factors on the structures of Mesostigmata mite communities and the dispersal rates of these communities between the investigated plots. In total, 250 soil samples were analysed in July 2017, revealing the presence of 30 species, with 1163 individuals. Using the multivariate analysis, we observed that each experimental plot was defined by characteristic environmental conditions, i.e., vegetation cover, soil moisture content, and soil temperature differed significantly between the experimental grasslands. Each experimental plot was characterised by a specific indicator species and population parameters (numerical abundance and species richness). The effects of these soil variables were even demonstrated at species level: Veigaia planicola, Geolaelaps nolli, and Gamasellodes insignis were influenced by vegetation cover, Lysigamasus conus and Dendrolaelaps foveolatus by soil temperature. The dispersal rates of mite communities from one plot to another were higher in the grasslands, where there were euconstant–constant species.
... This study also showed a drop in oribatid mite density under the hedgerow habitats in winter. Oribatids are sensitive to changes in temperature and soil moisture, with species often migrating to deeper soil, which is a likely explanation of our observation (Mitchell, 1979;Önen and Koç, 2011). Hedgerows also provide overwintering sites for many insects which then disperse outwards into adjacent fields in springtime (Maudsley, 2000). ...
... In Turkey there are limited researches about ecology and distribution of soil mites (Ayyıldız, 1987;Koç, 1991;Koç and Ayyıldız, 1992;Ayyıldız and Koç, 1994;Dik et al., 1999;Önen, 2002;Soydan, 2002;Kahveci et al., 2006;Urhan et al., 2008;Koç and Somuncu, 2011;Önen and Koç, 2011;Bezci et al., 2017). Somuncu and Koç (2012a), Akyol and Koç (2016b), and Koç and Poyraz Tınartaş (2017a) surveyed seasonal distribution of raphignathoid mites in Afyonkarahisar province and two counties of İzmir and Manisa. ...
The present paper provides a historical review of the researches on the superfamily Raphignathoidea in Turkey, with an updated list of the species known from Turkey. Most species reported from this country have been pub-lished in a wide range of different journals, mainly by Turkish researchers and a few by their colleagues from other coun-tries, so there was a need to combine them in one paper. To date, about 250 papers on the taxonomy, fauna, morphology, biology and other related fields have been published by 90 authors. Presently, Raphignathoidea is represented in Turkey by 217 species in 26 genera of 8 families. The recorded species richness of the Turkish Raphignathoidea is about 20% of the known world Raphignathoidea fauna.
... Since the characteristics of the sites along the study gradient differed significantly only in soil moisture, we can assume that in alluvial soils moisture is an important factor affecting the distribution of oribatid mites. Vertical stratification of oribatid abundance in arable soils is not as obvious compared with grassland or forest soils due to the repeated ploughing that leads to a mixing of the soil layers, thus creating homogenous conditions up to 30 cm soil depth, or even deeper (Wood 1967;Pande and Berthet 1975;Price and Benham Jr 1977;Luxton 1981;Perdue and Crossley Jr 1990;Karasawa and Hijii 2008;Önen and Koç 2011). This fact is probably the reason for the non-significant abundance differences within the soil profile in the majority of our samplings at the study sites. ...
Oribatid mites make up a dominant group of soil mesofauna. These microarthropods are quite rarely researched in heavy clay soils, and their seasonal dynamics has never been studied thoroughly during the year in such an environment. The research was conducted in 1994–1995 at three sites along a small-scale moisture gradient, with the aim of describing the influence of different moisture conditions on this soil mesofaunal group and evaluating their seasonal dynamics regarding temperature and soil humidity fluctuations. The study area was characterized by a land depression in a field with clay soil, where waterlogged periods occurred, in the Eastern Slovak Lowland (Slovakia). The investigations were based on 24,890 oribatid adults from 72 species. The mean abundance and total species richness of Oribatida increased with increasing soil moisture towards the lower part of the land depression. The abundance and number of species reached a maximum at the bottom site (ca. 8000 ind.m⁻² and 59 species) and was two-fold greater than at the summit site. The mean oribatid abundance and the mean species richness between the sites were compared, and significant differences were found on almost all sampling occasions, but the patterns of changes along the moisture gradient differed between study years. The seasonal fluctuations of oribatid abundance within the sites showed a pattern with spring and autumn maxima and a summer minimum only at moist depression bottom. Seasonal changes in the oribatid community composition were more pronounced at sites with lower soil moisture. Specific communities consisting of hygrophilous or eurytopic species and located at the bottom and slope sites of the depression clearly differed from those of the summit site, where xerotolerant species predominated. Ordination analysis confirmed the influence of temperature and precipitation on the species community composition. The bottom and slope site communities were dominated by the species combination of hygrophilous Microppia minus, Oxyoppia europaea and hygrotolerant Oppiella nova, while at the summit site these mites were replaced by more xerotolerant species: Ramusella insculpta, Oppiella obsoleta and Tectocepheus velatus.
... On sampling soil at depths 0-5 cm, 5-10 cm, 10-20 cm and litter, in order to investigate the seasonal and vertical distribution of Acarina fauna. Maximum percentage 43% of mites were collected from the litter layer followed by 20-36% individuals at 10-20 cm depth, while 12.8% Acarina fauna was recorded at 5-10 cm depth and 7.8% at 0-5 cm depth [13] . Among the various above surface and under surface pests and diseases in fruit ecosystem, some biological, taxonomic and management studies of above surface pests and diseases have been carried out but regarding under surface or underground pests especially important soil arthropods, there is no basic ecological information from planned as well as from unplanned (traditional) apple orchards. ...
Soil arthropod population abundance in soil relies on the number of factors (biotic interactions such as competition and predation, presence or absence of organic matter, physiochemical features of the soil such as temperature, moisture, compaction and pH) which change from layer to layer in soil. These factors lead in vertical stratifications and ultimately changes the vertical distribution of soil fauna. The vertical distribution of arthropods extracted from soil in the apple ecosystem of Kashmir was investigated for the period of May 2013 to March 2014. Apple orchard soil was sampled at depths 0-15 cm, 16-30 cm and 31-45 cm. Population abundance of soil fauna showed maximum population in the upper depth in each month. Moreover, highest (16.33 individuals/sample) were reported in the month of August and lowest (1.33 individuals/sample) were recorded in February in the upper depth. Further, The mean monthly relative abundance of soil arthropods showed 46.15-66.66% population confined upto 0-15 cm depth followed by 16-30 cm depth 25.92-35.24% population and lowest percentage of population 12.90-21.43% was recorded at 31-45 cm depth.
... Abbas (2012) showed that the number of Collembola individuals was significantly different in seasons in the monsoon climate region while the cause of this was observed to be large-scale seasonal variations in soil temperature and moisture. Önen and Koç (2011) reported that Oribatida and Mesostigmata taxa were observed to be the most abundant in the winter; however, Prostigmata and Astigmata taxa were the most abundant in spring. Similar to our results, they stated that the abundances of all taxa were the lowest in summer, possibly resulting from summer drought in the soil. ...
... The number of individuals was found to be the highest in soil and the lowest in litter. Similar to our findings, Önen and Koç (2011) reported that arthropods could migrate vertically into the soil layers due to the seasonal conditions in addition to the seasonal and altitudinal changes. ...
Seasonal and altitudinal variations in the abundance and diversity of soil arthropods were investigated in a pure Abies nordmanniana subsp. bornmulleriana (Uludağ fir) forest ecosystem. Sample plots were set at three different altitudes (1,200 m, 1,400 m and 1,550 m), and samplings were performed in four seasons in February, May, August and November in 2010. Soil properties varied significantly among the seasons; higher soil nitrogen (N) and carbon (C) concentrations were found in summer while C/N ratio and pH were higher in autumn. Litter mass decreased from winter to summer; however, litter nitrogen concentration was inversely correlated with litter mass. Litter C/N, potassium and magnesium concentrations were different among the seasons although litter pH, carbon, phosphorus and calcium concentrations did not show significant differences. Soil pH, phosphorus, calcium and magnesium concentrations mainly showed a decreasing trend with altitude; however, soil nitrogen and carbon concentrations had a significantly increasing trend. Litter mass did not have any significant difference although litter pH, calcium and magnesium concentrations showed a significantly decreasing trend with altitude. In total, 54,348 individual soil arthropods were counted, identified and classified from 144 litter and soil samples collected in the study. The arthropods that were identified belonged to 90 different taxa within six classes and 28 orders, which were significantly different depending on habitats (soil or litter), altitudes and seasons throughout the year.
Ph.D. THESIS
SEASONAL VARIATION OF SOIL ARTHROPODS (Arthropoda) IN FIR (Abies bornmulleriana Mattf.) ECOSYSTEMS IN BOLU-ALADAG
Ahmet DUYAR
Istanbul University
Graduate School of Science and Engineering
Department of Soil Science and Ecology
Supervisor: Prof.Dr. Ender MAKİNECİ
In the forest ecosystems, the most important component of nutrient cycling is litter decomposition. Soil arthropods have a role as primary and seconder consumers in process of litter decay and decomposition. Abundance, diversity and community structure of arthropods in soil ecosystem; give rapid response to change of physical, chemical and climatic characteristics of site.
In this study, to determine of seasonal changes of soil arthropods was aimed in Uludağ Fir (Abies bornmulleriana Mattf.) ecosystem which is an important forest tree species in Turkey. Study was conducted in pure fir stands at 1200-1600 m altitudes (4 elevation gradients) in Aladağ, Bolu. The samples were taken separately from top mineral soil (0–5 cm), forest floor and intact point of surface soil and forest floor (pitfall traps). Also, soil, forest floor and climate characteristics in sample plots were evaluated.
Arthropods’ characteristics and their relationships with site properties were determined in the soil ecosystem. Abundance and diversity of arthropods were also evaluated according to seasons and altitudes. The distribution in soil layers and habitat preferences of the arthropods have been revealed. In addition, distribution in trophic levels and biological diversity of arthropods were determined.
During the study, some characteristics of soil and forest floor, in addition to climatic conditions such as temperature and humidity, were significantly different depending on seasons and altitudes. The average abundance of arthropods was 90116 in the soil, 167716 in the forest floor and 4437 in the pitfall traps; and was 262269 individuals/m² in total. The most effective factors on the abundance and diversity of arthropods were temperature and humidity that changes depending on the season in their habitats. Shannon-Wiener Index (H′) and Species Richness (S′) values were arranged in forest floor (H′= 2.96; S′= 45), in the soil (H′= 2.63; S′= 30) and in the pitfall traps (H′= 2.22; S′= 22) according to their habitats.
October 2014, 167 Pages.
Keywords: Food web, biodiversity, pitfall trap, Shannon Wiener Index, Collembola
