Climate warming is often more detrimental to large body sized organisms than small organisms. Yet, how such differential effects of at organismal levels affect aggregate community properties, as biomass, remains little understood. Here, using geothermally warmed sub-Arctic grassland soils, we investigate total biomass (product density and individual mass) two major groups soil microarthropods (...

Springtails (Collembola) are very small terrestrial arthropods commonly found to be associated with edaphic environments [...]

Soil food webs comprise a multitude of trophic interactions that can affect the composition and productivity of plant communities. Belowground predators feeding on microbial grazers like Collembola could decelerate nutrient mineralization by reducing microbial turnover in the soil, which in turn could negatively influence plant growth. However, empirical evidences for the ecological significanc...

Uncertainties exist about the value of non-prey food for predators that are commonly food-limited, and the dietary conditions where non-prey foods are beneficial for carnivorous species. Prior studies show that large quantities of pollen grains are intercepted in the webs of web-building spiders. We examined the nutritional benefits of pollen as a non-prey food for a common ground-dwelling, she...

Functional traits determine the occurrence of species along environmental gradients and their coexistence with other species. Understanding how traits evolved among coexisting species helps to infer community assembly processes. We propose fatty acid composition in consumer tissue as a functional trait related to both food resources and physiological functions of species. We measured phylogenet...

Collembola, Diplura, and Protura are basal orders of Hexapoda that are associated primarily with leaf litter and other decaying vegetative materials. These three clades historically have been considered monophyletic orders of insects, but some systematists recently have ranked them as classes independent of the class Insecta [1]. Collembola are unique in having a projecting furcula on the abdom...

Collembola, also known as springtails, are soil-dwelling arthropods that typically respire through the cuticle. To avoid suffocating in wet conditions, Collembola have evolved a complex, hierarchically nanostructured, cuticle surface that repels water with remarkable efficiency. In order to gain a more profound understanding of the cuticle characteristics, the chemical composition and architect...

Understanding the abundance and richness of species is one of the most fundamental steps in effecting their conservation. Despite global recognition of the significance of the below-ground component of diversity for ecosystem functioning, the soil remains a poorly studied terrestrial ecosystem. In South Africa, knowledge is increasing for a variety of soil faunal groups, but many still remain p...