Ra. Hansen et Dc. Coleman, LITTER COMPLEXITY AND COMPOSITION ARE DETERMINANTS OF THE DIVERSITY AND SPECIES COMPOSITION OF ORIBATID MITES (ACARI, ORIBATIDA) IN LITTERBAGS, Agriculture, ecosystems & environment. Applied soil ecology, 9(1-3), 1998, pp. 17-23
To investigate the relationship between litter complexity and composit
ion and the diversity and composition of the oribatid mite fauna inhab
iting it, an experiment was carried out at a single forested site in t
he mountains of North Carolina, USA. Natural litterfall was excluded f
rom a series of 1 m(2) plots and replaced with treatment litters that
varied in composition and complexity. Plots of pure birch, maple and o
ak Litter comprised the simple litter treatments. Two complex litters
were made of a mixture of these three litter species and a mixture of
seven litter species. Treatment litters were applied to the plots in t
he autumn of 1993 and again in 1994, The oribatid mites extracted from
litterbags of the treatment litters from both years are reported on h
ere. Mixed litters had a significantly greater variety of microhabitat
s, as defined by substrate type and fungal growth form, than did the s
imple Litters. Likewise, the oribatid mite species richness in litterb
ags of mixed litter was significantly higher than that in the simple l
itters. The fauna within replicates of each litter-type were more simi
lar to each other than to those of other treatments. A third of the mi
te species tested showed a differential response among the simple Litt
er-types. These results indicate a link between heterogeneity and dive
rsity of mites active in a particular horizon of Litter and some influ
ence of litter-type upon species composition. Such patterns in habitat
use by adult mites are strong, though not conclusive evidence of the
ultimate role of heterogeneity in maintaining the diversity of oribati
d mites. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.