| Abstract | Windstorms and salvage logging lead to huge soil disturbance in alpine spruce forests, potentially affecting soil-living arthropods. However, the impacts of forest loss and possible interactions with underlying ecological gradients on soil microarthropod communities remain little known, especially across different environmental conditions. Here we used DNA metabarcoding approach to study wind-induced disturbances on forest communities of springtails and soil mites. In particular, we aimed to test the effect of forest soil disturbance on the abundance, richness, species composition, and functional guilds of microarthropods. We sampled 29 pairs of windfall-forest sites across gradients of elevation, precipitation, aspect and slope, 2 years after a massive windstorm, named Vaia, which hit North-Eastern Italy in October 2018. Our results showed that wind-induced disturbances led to detrimental impacts on soil-living communities. Abundance of microarthropods decreased in windfalls, but with interacting effects with precipitation gradients. Operative Taxonomic Units (OTU) richness strongly decreased in post-disturbance sites, particularly affecting plant-feeder trophic guilds. Furthermore, species composition analyses revealed that communities occurring in post-disturbance sites were different to those in undisturbed forests (i.e., stands without wind damage). However, variables at different spatial scales played different roles depending on the considered taxon. Our study contributes to shed light on the impacts on important, but often neglected arthropod communities after windstorm in spruce forests. Effects of forest disturbance are often mediated by underlying large scale ecological gradients, such as precipitation and topography. Massive impacts of stronger and more frequent windstorms are expected to hit forests in the future; given the response we recorded, mediated by environmental features, forest managers need to take site-specific conservation measures. |
| Text | 487144 2023 10.7717/peerj.15959 soil Impact of forest disturbance on microarthropod communities depends on underlying ecological gradients and species traits Davide Nardi, Diego Fontaneto, Matteo Girardi, Isaac Chini, Daniela Bertoldi, Roberto Larcher, Cristiano Vernesi 1DAFNAE, University of Padua, Legnaro, Italy 2Forest Ecology Unit/Research and Innovation Centre, Fondazione Edmund Mach, San Michele all Adige, Italy 3Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection, National Research Council, Sesto Fiorentino, Italy 4Water Research Institute, National Research Council, Verbania Pallanza, Italy 5National Biodiversity Future Center, Palermo, Italy 6Conservation Genomics Unit/Research and Innovation Centre, Fondazione Edmund Mach, San Michele all Adige, Italy 7Technology and Transfer Centre, Fondazione Edmund Mach, San Michele all Adige, Italy Windstorms and salvage logging lead to huge soil disturbance in alpine spruce forests, potentially affecting soil living arthropods. However, the impacts of forest loss and possible interactions with underlying ecological gradients on soil microarthropod communities remain little known, especially across different environmental conditions. Here we used DNA metabarcoding approach to study wind induced disturbances on forest communities of springtails and soil mites. In particular, we aimed to test the effect of forest soil disturbance on the abundance, richness, species composition, and functional guilds of microarthropods. We sampled 29 pairs of windfall forest sites across gradients of elevation, precipitation, aspect and slope, 2 years after a massive windstorm, named Vaia, which hit North Eastern Italy in October 2018. Our results showed that wind induced disturbances led to detrimental impacts on soil living communities. Abundance of microarthropods decreased in windfalls, but with interacting effects with precipitation gradients. Operative Taxonomic Units OTU richness strongly decreased in post disturbance sites, particularly affecting plant feeder trophic guilds. Furthermore, species composition analyses revealed that communities occurring in post disturbance sites were different to those in undisturbed forests i.e., stands without wind damage . However, variables at different spatial scales played different roles depending on the considered taxon. Our study contributes to shed light on the impacts on important, but often neglected arthropod communities after windstorm in spruce forests. Effects of forest disturbance are often mediated by underlying large scale ecological gradients, such as precipitation and topography. Massive impacts of stronger and more frequent windstorms are expected to hit forests in the future; given the response we recorded, mediated by environmental features, forest managers need to take site specific conservation measures. 11 Published version https //peerj.com/articles/15959/# nardi peerj 15959.pdf Articolo in rivista 2167 8359 PeerJ PeerJ diego.fontaneto FONTANETO DIEGO PRR.AP005.006.001 NBFC_SPOKE3_ ASSESSING AND MONITORING TERRESTRIAL AND FRESHWATER BIODIVERSITY AND ITS EVOLUTION FROM TAXONOMY TO GENOMICS AND CITIZEN SCIENCE_IRSA |
