DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.5150646
title: Soil microarthropods, ground-dwelling arthropods and soil properties in mown and grazed grasslands in the Veluwe region

description: In order to find out which factors limit the restoration of soil life and their ecosystem services under grasslands on sandy soils, we studied 40 grasslands of which 20 had agricultural and 20 nature land use, all after an agricultural history. <strong>Site selection</strong> Within the Veluwe region (The Netherlands), we selected 40 grasslands: 20 agricultural grasslands and 20 nature grasslands which were managed as new nature reserves since last tillage. Within each of these two land-use types, two types of grassland management were selected: mowing and grazing. Within each of the four combinations of land use and management we selected ten grasslands over a broad age range since last tillage. All grasslands were located on sandy soils (Typic Haploquod and Plaggeptic Haploquod; Soil Survey Staff 1999) with a deep water table to rule out dispersal of soil fauna during waterlogging (Siepel 1996; Jabbour & Barbercheck 2008). <strong>Vegetation and insect surveys</strong> Within each grassland a 5×5 meter monitoring plot was laid-out for plant cover surveys, insect and soil-microarthropod sampling and soil analyses. The vegetation surveys were carried out in 2019 at the end of May and in early June, using the Braun-Blanquet method (Braun-Blanquet 1932). In June 2019 soil-surface dwelling insects were sampled with a pitfall trap (Wiggers et al. 2015). Three pitfall traps (8 cm diameter, ca. 20 cm deep) were placed in each plot. Traps were half filled with a solution of water and glycol (3:1) and 3 % Extran soap. A plexiglass cover 20 cm above the trap prevented rainfall diluting the liquid. Traps were removed and emptied after seven days. Insects were identified and grouped at the order level, however, predator groups (carabid and staphylinid beetles, ants and spiders) were identified to the species level in order to group those by their feeding guild. Before analyzing the pitfall trap catches we first removed certain groups from the counts because pitfall traps are not well-suited to catch them systematically: Acari, Collembola, Psocoptera, Thysanoptera, Trichoptera, Lepidoptera, Siphonaptera, Diptera, Symphyta, Apocrita, and Parasitica. The remaining 62.0% of the caught individuals were surface-dwelling animals, and their totals (of three pitfall traps per site) were analyzed with negative-binomial generalized linear models. We also analyzed the subset of predators (73.6% of the surface dwellers). <strong>Soil chemical and pesticide sampling and analysis</strong> On 8, 9 and 16 October 2019, a bulk soil sample of 50 soil cores (0 - 10 cm) was collected from each 5×5 meter monitoring plot. After homogenization a sub-sample was analyzed for soil chemical analysis. Prior to chemical analysis, samples were oven-dried at 40 °C. Soil acidity of the oven-dried samples was measured in 1 M KCl (pH-KCl). Soil Organic Matter (SOM) was determined by loss-on-ignition (Ball 1964). Ammonium-lactate-extractable P (PAL) was determined according to the standard method (Bronswijk et al. 2003). Total potassium (K) in solution was determined using flame photometry after extraction of soil with HCl (0.1 M) and oxalic acid (0.5 M) in a 1:10 M:V ratio and filtration (Bronswijk et al. 2003). Clay (&lt;2 μm diameter) content was determined through density fractionation (NEN 5753, 2018). Another soil sub-sample was sent to Eurofins Zeeuws-Vlaanderen for pesticide/residue analysis. Samples were freeze-dried and homogenized prior to analysis. Homogenized samples were extracted with acetone, petroleum ether and dichloro-methane using an optimized mini-Luke method. In total 664 pesticides and pesticide residues were analyzed with gas chromatography (Agilent) and liquid chromatography (LC-chromatograph (Agilent) and MSMS (Sciex)). Glyphosate, its residue AMPA and gluphosinate were analyzed using single residue analysis. The detection limit (LOD) was 0,1 mg per kg sample. <strong>Soil microarthropods sampling and determination</strong> Grasslands were sampled for microarthropods on 8, 9 and 16 October 2019, taking three cores per monitoring plot of 5×5 m. Cores were 5 cm Ø and 5 cm deep mineral soil plus upper litter. Cores were taken in the middle of the monitoring plots, 1 m apart from each other. Cores were extracted on a Tullgren funnel for 7 days. During that period temperature was increased from 35 to 45 <sup>0</sup>C. Ethanol 70% was used as conservation fluid and microarthropods obtained were put into lactic acid 30% for clarification and identification (Siepel & van de Bund 1988). Identification for the main groups is according to Weigmann (2006) for Oribatida, Karg (1993) for Gamasina and Karg (1989) for Uropodina. Nomenclature is according to Siepel et al. (2009) (Oribatida), Siepel et al. (2016) (Astigmatina) and Siepel et al. (2018) (Mesostigmata). <strong>Litter decomposition</strong> To determine the potential decomposition of soil organic matter on each grassland the Tea Bag Index (TBI) was used (Keuskamp et al. 2013). In each grassland four green tea and four rooibos tea bags were buried at 8 cm deep in May 2019 in the 5×5 meter monitoring plots. After 90 days tea bags were collected and stored at 4 ⁰C prior to drying at 70 ⁰C for 48 hours. After drying, remaining sand and (fine) plant roots were carefully removed and the teabags were weighted to determine weight loss. The decomposition rate (<em>k</em>) and the litter stabilization factor (<em>S</em>) of the tea was calculated using the Tea Bag Index (Keuskamp et al. 2013). <strong>Data files</strong> <em><strong>siteData.csv</strong></em> site: grassland ID landuse: agricultural or nature land use treat: mowing or grazing management yearsManaged: number of years since last tillage fertilization: kg available nitrogen applied per hectare nGrazingDaysPerHa: livestock days per hectare per year N: mg nitrogen per 100 g PAl: mg P<sub>2</sub>0<sub>5</sub> per 100 g organicMatter: soil organic matter percentage clay: soil clay percentage nPlantSpecies: number of plant species nForbSpecies: number of forb species nMitesSpringtails: total number of individuals of mites and springtails in three core samples nMitesSpringtailsSpecies: number of mite and springtail species in three core samples shannonMitesSpringtails: Shannon diversity index for microarthropods (mites and springtails) nHerboFungivorousGrazerMitesSpringtails: total number of individuals of mites and springtails that are (herbo-)fungivorous grazers, in three core samples nInsectsSpidersPitfall: number of ground-dwelling insect and spider individuals in pitfall traps nPredatorInsectsSpidersPitfall: number of ground-dwelling insect and spider individuals that are predators, in pitfall traps decompositionRate: decomposition rate based on the Tea Bag Index litterStabilisationFactor: litter stabilization factor based on the Tea Bag Index nPesticides: number of detected pesticides avicidesTotalConcentration: microgram antraquinon per kg dry soil fungicidesTotalConcentration: total microgram of fungicides per kg dry soil insecticidesTotalConcentration: total microgram of insecticides per kg dry soil herbicidesTotalConcentration: total microgram of herbicides per kg dry soil pesticidesTotalConcentration: total microgram of pesticides (avicides+fungicides+herbicides+insecticides) per kg dry soil nPredatorCarabids: number of predator carabid beetles in pitfall traps nPredatorStaphylinids: number of predator staphylinid beetles in pitfall traps distanceToNearestHighway: shortest distance (in meters) to the nearest highway (A-road) distanceToNearestNroad: shortest distance (in meters) to the nearest national road (N-road) <em><strong>mitesSpringtails.csv</strong></em> core: core ID, consisting of the site ID (number) and core-within-site ID (letter) species: soil mite or springtail taxon encountered in a soil core guild: feeding guild of the soil mite or springtail taxon: b: bacterivorous fb: fungivorous browser fg: fungivorous grazer gp: general predator hb: herbivorous browser hfg: (herbo-)fungivorous grazer hg: herbivorous grazer o: omnivore ohf: opportunistic herbo-fungivore droughtSens: drought strategy of soil mite and springtail taxa 1: drought avoiders 2: drought sensitive 3: drought mesotolerant 4: drought tolerant microart: number of individuals of a taxon found in a soil core <em><strong>insecticideData.csv</strong></em> <em><strong>fungicideData.csv</strong></em> <em><strong>herbicideData.csv</strong></em> site: grassland ID other variables: microgram of a certain pesticide per kg dry soil
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