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Given the relevant role played by soil organisms in fundamental ecosystem processes, current ecological research stresses the importance of understanding the trophic structure of soil communities in order to better predict the effects that global environmental change can have on the soil food web structure and dynamics. Using stable isotope analysis, we examined the trophic ecology of six soil oribatid mite species present in the leaf litter of beech forests which mainly differed in mean annual precipitation. We explored the relationship between animal and leaf litter signatures to determine which of the two approaches, conventional calibration or a novel solution we offer using statistical control (i.e., isotopic signature of the basal resource included as a covariate in the model), is more adequate to evaluate the trophic structure of soil communities across different sites, and investigated if the trophic niches of the species varied under two different precipitation regimes. The trophic position of some species varied with rainfall; the observed enrichment in 15N in dry forests reflects trophic and spatial shifts probably resulting from changes in microbial activity and community composition. In addition, we find interactive effects between precipitation and the basal resource for some species and a lack of correlation between resource and oribatid mite stable isotope values for others. We discuss the pertinence of using conventional data calibration as it appears to mask relevant trends regarding the trophic ecology of oribatid mite species, and suggest using statistical control (a covariate approach) instead.

Crop production intensification often leads to the structural simplification of production systems. This structural simplification is expected to have strong impacts on biodiversity and the provisioning of ecosystem services, but information about this topic is scarce. For instance, no information exists for Mediterranean olive (Olea europaea) groves, despite olive farming representing a significant share of the agricultural sector in some European countries. We investigated the impact of in-farm and landscape-level structural simplification on the potential of three common insectivorous bats (i.e., Pipistrellus kuhlii, P. pygmaeus and P. pipistrellus) to provide biocontrol services against one of the most harmful olive pests worldwide, the olive fruit moth Prays oleae. Bats and insect surveys were both carried out in olive groves representing increasing levels of structural simplification and during three sampling seasons (spring, summer and autumn). At grove-level, structural simplification was considered as resulting from reduced planting pattern variability (i.e., tree and row spacing) and tree features (diameter at breast height, height of the trunk and canopy area), while at landscape level was considered as resulting from reduced land-cover types. We found that the Kuhl’s pipistrelle was the most frequently recorded species in all types of olive groves and seasons. Moreover, the activity levels of pipistrelle bats as a whole significantly decreased with the structural simplification of olive groves. The abundance of P. oleae was highest at intermediate levels of structural simplification, irrespective of the season. Forest cover in the surrounding landscape had a significant positive influence on the activity levels of P. kuhlii, and a significant and negative influence on the abundance of P. oleae. Our study demonstrates that structural simplification differentially influences the activity patterns of both insectivorous bats and insect pests within olive groves. Moreover, it suggests that structural simplification may strongly compromise biocontrol services provided by bats on the major olive pest P. oleae.

Spatial heterogeneity – in terms of topography, and macro- and microclimatic conditions, among others – results in habitat diversity, which in turn may promote species diversity. Thus, the spatial structure (i.e. spatial variance partitioning at different scales and spatial arrangement of drivers of abundance) of the different feeding guilds within food webs may reflect relevant differences in the way populations interact and how these interactions affect ecosystem processes. Our study focuses on the spatial distribution of animals living in the leaf litter layer of beech forests in the National Parks of northern Spain, across sites which differ in precipitation. Using Generalised Linear Mixed Models we estimated the spatial variance components at different scales and for three feeding guilds in leaf litter food webs: saprophagous and microphytophagous mesofauna, saprophagous macrofauna and zoophagous macrofauna. We found that the only consistently significant source of variation for the three feeding guilds was that at the level of “among valleys within Parks”, which, among other potential explanations, could reflect meso-climatic differences among valleys. We also studied which factors may control spatial variation in these food webs through a model selection approach. Controlling for all other relevant factors, we still found strong differences in abundances among National Parks. Also, invertebrates were more abundant in micro-sites located at the base of slopes – where nutrients and water accumulate – than in micro-sites located on the slopes – which, due to surface runoff, are drier and accumulate fewer nutrients. Also, as found in beech forests of Central Europe, limestone sites have higher abundances of fauna than siliceous sites with lower pH. The macro- and micro-scale dependence of these food webs on water availability could have important consequences for the persistence of these forests under global warming.