Despite the predominance of aquatic environments on the planet Earth, microbial abundance and diversity within soil environments exceed that of the aquatic realm. Most of what we know of viral ecology within natural systems has come through investigations of aquatic environments. However, the 'aquatic-bias' in viral ecology is beginning to change as the cultivation-independent approaches, which...

The interactions between soil invertebrates and land use and management are fundamental for soil quality assessment but remain largely unaddressed. The aim of this study was to evaluate the changes in soil arthropod community of an entisol brought about by different land use systems under semiarid climate in Pernambuco State, Brazil. The soil invertebrate community was sampled using pitfall tra...

two different microhabitats (cropped fields versus established date-palm farms) in two different cities in khuzestan province, southwestern iran, were sampled monthly during 2011-2012 in order to assess the role of anthropic uses of soil on the biodiversity of oribatid mites. a total of 17 species of oribatid mites belonging to 10 families and 15 genera were identified (nine species were collec...

We studied abundance, diversity, and composition of soil invertebrates along snowmelt gradients to generally understand how animal communities are responding life conditions across snowbeds a west–east transect the European Alps create reference inventory for future investigations climate change effects on snowbed habitats. extracted microarthropods (collembolans, oribatid mites) macroinvertebr...

Analysing the consequences of the decrease in biodiversity for ecosystem functioning and stability has been a major concern in ecology. However, the impact of decline in soil microbial diversity on ecosystem sustainability remains largely unknown. This has been assessed for decomposition, which is insured by a large proportion of the soil microbial community, but not for more specialized and le...

JENNIFER KATE WILLIAMS The degradation of soil quality due to anthropogenic causes is globally important, both in terms of ecosystem services and ecological biodiversity. Soil quality reduction is stated to be detrimental for population densities and species diversity of soil invertebrates, including the mesofauna (Acari and Collembola). Within the soil food web, mesofauna occupy several trophi...

In grasslands under restoration succession, the effect of nutrient impoverishment on the vegetation has been intensively studied. The invertebrate soil animal community has, however, rarely been studied under such conditions. We hypothesised that a plant community in nutrient-poor grasslands supports fewer macro-invertebrate individuals than richer grasslands. We also hypothesised that the comp...

Tropical biodiversity is threatened by the expansion of oil-palm plantations. Reduced-impact farming systems such as agroforests, have been proposed to increase biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. In regions where oil-palm plantations already dominate the landscape, this increase can only be achieved through systematic ecological restoration. However, our knowledge about the underlying ecol...