Effects of Environment and Space on Species Turnover of Soil Faunas
across Multiple Forest Ecosystems in East Asia
Abstract
Species turnover is fundamental for understanding the mechanisms that
influence large-scale species richness patterns. However, the
large-scale spatial variation and the causes in soil animal species
turnover remain elusive. In addition, the determinants of species
turnover depend on the dispersal ability of guilds. In this study, we
explored the large-scale patterns of meso-micro soil fauna turnover
pattern and the driving factors based on fourteen sampling sites in East
Asia. The patterns of soil fauna species turnover increased
significantly with increasing latitude differences in East Asia. The
environment explained 54.09, 50.62, and 57.34% of the total variance,
and spatial factors explained 13.84, 15.91, and 21.04% of the total
variance in species composition of overall, phytophage, and predacity
faunas, respectively. Meanwhile, the effects of climate factors in
environmental processes were stronger than that of soil factors in these
three groups. Our results support the hypothesis that the effect of
environment processes on soil animal species turnover is more important
than the effect of the neutral. Climatic factors explained more
variation for turnover of phytophage faunas, but soil and environment
factors explained equally for predacity. Our results provide evidence
supporting both environmental filtering and dispersal limitation
hypotheses on the reginal and population scales. At last, this study has
important theoretical significance and applied value in maintaining and
promoting soil biodiversity and ecosystem services on the large scale.