Oribatid mites reveal that competition for resources and trophic structure combine to regulate the assembly of diverse soil animal communities.

ABSTRACT: The role of niche partitioning in structuring species-rich soil animal communities has been debated for decades and generated the "enigma of soil animal diversity." More recently, resource-based niche partitioning has been hypothesized to play a very limited role in the assembly of soil animal communities. To test this hypothesis, we applied a novel combination of stable isotopes and null models of species co-occurrence to quantify the extent of resource niche partitioning on a diverse oribatid mite community sampled from mature oak woodland.We asked whether species aggregate or segregate spatially and how these patterns correlated with the abundance of estimated trophic guilds. We also estimated the effects of environmental variables on community structure.All measured environmental varia

SUBMITTER: Magilton M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6662270 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature