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The European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) is a dominant tree species in European forests and it has a huge ecological significance and high economic value. Due to its large dimensions, it can produce large amounts of decayed wood (CWD) which may be critical for maintaining the population of many rare species including mites. Many studies focused on mite (Mesostigmata) abundance, species richness, or diversity in CWD, however, our knowledge on mite biomass is still scarce. Therefore, the main aim of that study was to recognize the Mesostigmata biomass in logs and adjacent soil. In total, 90 samples (125 cm3, 5 cm depth) were collected from European beech logs and soil with litter thickness. Soil samples were collected from ecotone zone (soil near the log) and further three distances—0.5 m, 1.0 m, 1.5 m away from the log. Body length and width were measured for each individual of rare species and in the case of common species at least for 10 individuals. Our study revealed the highest mite biomass in CWD and soil near to the log (ecotone). Total male biomass was the highest in CWD and differed significantly from all other soil microhabitats. Female biomass did not differ between soil and CWD, whereas deutonymphs biomass differed between CWD and soil 1.0 m away from the log. Mean abundance, species richness, and diversity did not differ between the microhabitats. Decaying logs were dominated by Janietella pulchella whereas soil by Veigaia nemorensis. In conclusion, decayed European beech logs maintain the highest male and deutonymph biomass when compared to adjacent soil. Beech logs are important microhabitats for Mesostigmata mite communities, where they reached the highest abundance.

Forests create harbour different soil mite communities due to their high spatial heterogeneity, within which microhabitats become biodiversity hotspots or refugia. This study aimed to characterize ...

Afforestation can make an important contribution mitigating the effects of changing climate and provide structural and functional benefits. Afforestation also provides challenges for forest managers connected with past land-use history; therefore, there is an urgent need to summarize knowledge about such habitats and point out the gaps in knowledge for planning future studies. Although post-agricultural forests cover a large forest area in Europe, our understanding of the mechanisms governing the below-ground environment is still poor, especially when soil fauna is considered. In this study, we revised knowledge about the soil environment and the response of soil fauna to afforestation on former agricultural lands located in Europe based on research articles from the ISI Web of Science database. Data came from various but distinct locations, compared forests with different types of agricultural lands, and presented previous knowledge about soil chemistry and accompanying soil fauna communities. Finally, we selected 15 studies, investigating soil fauna communities on post-agricultural lands. The meta-analysis was based on response ratio (R) for available data, although in many cases the data were incomplete. Results indicated that post-agricultural forests differ from arable lands in reference to soil pH, but not for soil organic matter and carbon content. Different soil animal groups were represented by a similar number of studies: microfauna (seven studies) and mesofauna (nine), whereas macrofauna were represented by five studies. Meta-analysis revealed that the response of soil fauna to afforestation differed between soil fauna size classes. Additionally, in total, 18 tree species, 12 soil types, and 20 soil parameters were provided in the literature but only a few of them were presented in a single study. Future studies should include the impact of microclimate, detailed stand characteristics and soil conditions, which could help to clearly describe the impact of certain tree species growing on certain soil types. In future soil fauna ecological studies, the data should include mean values, standard deviation (SD) and/or standard effort of means (SE) for abundance, species richness, diversity indices and number of collected samples. Providing the above mentioned information will give the broad audience the opportunity to include data in future comparative analyses.

In the past, ecological research mainly omitted the sexual and developmental variability of mite communities, and therefore could not fully reflect the actual state and function of mite communities in the ecosystems studied. The aim here was to analyze how habitat conditions (mixed vs. monoculture stands) and single-species litter of 14 tree species (in mixed stands) affect the sex and developmental stages of Mesostigmata mites living on the decomposing litter. The research was conducted in 2011–2016, at the Bełchatów Lignite Mine external spoil heap (Central Poland) in mixed stands growing on the spoil heap, as well as in pine and birch monoculture stands growing on the spoil heap and an adjacent forest area. We found significant influences of habitat on females, males and juveniles. Additionally, we found that soil mean temperature had a significant effect on males and juveniles, but not on females. Moreover, despite the insignificant influence of litter species on mite communities, we found that percentage litter mass loss significantly affected female and juvenile mites. Taking into account habitat type, the percentage litter mass loss significantly affected female and male mites, but not juveniles. The mite abundance calculated per dry litter mass usually gradually increased during decomposition. Interestingly, the highest mean female, male and juvenile abundances were recorded in birch stands growing on the adjacent forest area; however, juvenile mites were also very numerous in mixed stands on spoil heap. Therefore, our results confirm that mixed stands on post-mining areas are a potentially better habitat for development of mesostigmatid communities compared to monocultures, among others by relatively higher humidity and lower temperatures.

Density, diversity and assemblage structure of Mesostigmata (cohorts Gamasina and Uropodina) were investigated in Scots pine forests differing in forest age (young: 9–40 years and mature: 83–101 years) in which wildfire occurred. This animal group belongs to the dominant acarine predators playing a crucial role in soil food webs and being important as biological control agents. In total, six forests (three within young and three within mature stands) were inspected in Puszcza Knyszyńska Forest Complex in May 2015. At each forest area, sampling was done from burned and adjacent control sites with steel cylinders for heat extraction of soil fauna. Data were analyzed statistically with nested ANOVA. We found a significant effect on mite density of both fire and forest age, with more mites in mature forests and control plots. In total, 36 mite taxa were identified. Mite diversity differed significantly between forest ages but not between burned versus control. Our study indicated that all studied forests are characterized by unique mite species and that the mite communities are dominated by different mite species depending on age forest and surface wildfire occurrence. Finally, canonical correspondence analysis ranked the mite assemblages from control mature, through burned young and burned mature, away from the control young. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10493-017-0148-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Decomposition and topsoil microclimate, mainly humidity and soil temperature, affects the availability of nutrients, as well as the edaphon structure, including soil mites, springtails, nematodes, insects and oligochaetes. Soil arthropod decomposers are the food base for predators in the soil trophic chains, including mesostigmatid (gamasid) mites. The aim of our study was to describe the succession of mesostigmatid assemblages on decomposed litter of 14 tree species in mixed stands growing on a reclaimed post-mining site. We hypothesized that litter species would significantly affect the gamasid abundance, species richness and diversity. Moreover, we hypothesized that mesostigmatid abundance, species richness and diversity would be higher in deciduous litter compared to pioneer Scots pine litter. Additionally, along with the decomposition process, the gamasid diversity, species richness and abundance would be significantly affected by soil temperature and differ among collection dates, with the lowest values at the beginning and the end, and with the highest values in the middle of the study period. In December 2011, 1389 litterbags (mesh size = 1 mm) containing leaf litter (initial dry mass = 8.004–10.772 g) were placed on research plots and collected after 3, 6, 9, 13, 19, 25, 31, 37, 43 and 58 months after the experiment started. We determined the percentage litter mass loss for each sample and mean soil temperature on each research plot. Soil microarthropods were extracted from litterbag samples using Berlese-Tullgren funnels, and mesostigmatid mites were selected using a stereomicroscope. The mites were identified to genus and/or species level including developmental stages, using a microscope with high magnification and acarological keys. In total, 19,296 gamasid mites were selected and classified into 52 taxa. The dominant species were Trachytes aegrota (C.L. Koch) (49.9% of all gamasid mites found), Veigaia nemorensis (C.L. Koch) (8.9%) and Gamasellodes bicolor (Berlese) (7.7%). We found that time of litterbag sampling did not affect abundance, species richness and diversity of gamasid mites. Moreover, litter species affected species richness and diversity of gamasid mite assemblages, however, abundance was affected when calculated per sample, but not when calculated per dry litter mass. Additionally, we found that mean soil temperature and percentage litter mass loss also significantly affected abundance and species richness, however, the impact on diversity was insignificant. Our results may help to better understand of the importance of soil fauna that has a decisive impact on soil-forming processes on degraded areas. Results could also help to choose the right tree species to improve revitalization of degraded areas by creating better conditions for edaphic fauna, including species not directly involved in the decomposition process.

Large forest complexes with few human inhabitants provide a valuable resource for understanding natural processes in an environment not directly impacted by humans. However, studies of such systems are difficult to conduct due to the frequent need for collected samples to be subjected to lengthy laboratory processing protocols that require them to be transported to often distant laboratories. The objective of this study was to devise an easy-to-transport field device for sampling soil invertebrates with a simple single-day protocol of extraction. Studies were conducted in order to compare the quantitative and qualitative extraction efficiency of soil invertebrates using this new method (8 h for extraction) and a well-established one, using the Tullgren funnel (168 h for extraction). We also tested the influence of cooling collected microarthropod samples for 7 days on extraction efficiency. Data indicated that the field extraction device was comparable in efficiency to the standard Tullgren extraction funnels and did not affect the results obtained on abundance, species richness and diversity. In addition, the methods did not differ in reference to unique species and the proportional abundance of extracted developmental stages. Results suggest that the field extraction device is time-efficient compared to currently used extraction protocols. Most importantly, the new device allows researchers to study and analyze soil mesofauna directly in the field without needing to transport samples back to the laboratory, thus decreasing the risk of losing sample integrity and spreading soil pathogens. We suggest it will be useful as a complement to other older techniques in the future.

Mites significantly contribute, prevalently by vertical movement, to mixing of the organic layer with the mineral soil, thus they may be important in renewing soils. Our aim was to analyze the changes in abundance and species richness of mesostigmatid assemblages on decomposing leaves of Alnus glutinosa (L.) Gaertn., Betula pendula Roth, Pinus sylvestris L. and Quercus robur L. in pine and birch stands growing on a reclaimed spoil heap and adjacent forests. In December 2013, 1024 litterbags (mesh size = 1 mm) containing leaf litter of broadleaved and coniferous trees (mean initial dry weight per sample = 5.789 g) were laid out in the same number and kind in each of the two sites. Mites were extracted from litterbags which were collected every 3&ndash, 6 months for 3 years. In total, 6466 mites were identified in 59 taxa. Total abundance was higher on forest habitats (5174 specimens) compared to the spoil (1292), and in birch compared to pine stands, both in forest (3345, 1829, respectively) and spoil habitats (981, 311). Throughout the experiment, mites were most abundant on oak litter samples (2063 specimens), while the remaining litter types had similar abundances (1455&ndash, 1482). At the beginning of the experiment (3&ndash, 6 months) mite abundance was very low, but was higher on forest habitats. The highest abundance was found after 9 months&mdash, 144 specimens in pine stands on the spoil heap and 685 in birch stands on forest habitats. During the study, 49 taxa were found on forest and 29 on heap habitats. In birch stands, 37 and 22 taxa were found, whereas in pine 30 and 21, on forest and heap, respectively. The most frequent species on the heap were Amblyseius tubae Karg, Asca bicornis Canestrini et Fanzago, and Asca aphidioides Linneaeus, whereas in forest habitat&mdash, Zercon peltatus C.L. Koch, Veigaia nemorensis C.L. Koch, and Trachytes aegrota C.L. Koch. Habitat conditions, tree species and litter type significantly determined the mesostigmatid species composition, richness and abundance. By selection of dominant tree species during afforestation, it is possible to significantly affect the soil fauna composition, and thus indirectly the rate of decomposition.