DOI: 10.5061/dryad.2bvq83bz0
title: Older lineages of oribatid mites in mountain ranges have broader geographic ranges and exhibit more generalistic traits

description: Understanding ecological and evolutionary mechanisms that drive
 biodiversity patterns is important for comprehending biodiversity. Despite
 being critically important to the functioning of ecosystems, the
 mechanisms driving belowground biodiversity are little understood. We here
 investigated the radiation and trait diversity of soil oribatid mites from
 two mountain ranges, i.e. the Alps in Austria and Changbai Mountain in
 China, at similar latitude in the temperate zone differing in formation
 processes (orogenesis) and exposed to different climates. We collected and
 sequenced soil oribatid mites from forests at 950 to 1700 m at each
 mountain and embedded them into the chronogram of species from temperate
 Eurasia. We investigated the phylogenetic age of oribatid mites and
 compared the node age of species with the mountain uplift time of the Alps
 and Changbai Mountain. We then inspected trophic variation, geographical
 range size and reproductive mode, and identified traits that promote
 oribatid mite survival and evolution in montane forest ecosystems. We
 found that oribatid mites on Changbai Mountain are phylogenetically older
 than species in the Alps. All species on Changbai Mountain evolved long
 before the uplift of Changbai Mountain, but some species in the Alps
 evolved after the orogenesis of the Alps. On Changbai Mountain more
 species possess broader trophic variation, have larger geographical range
 sizes and more often reproduce via parthenogenesis compared to species
 from the Alps. Species on Changbai Mountain survived the mountain uplift
 or colonized the mountain thereafter supporting the view that generalistic
 traits promote survival and evolution in phylogenetically old soil animal
 species. Collectively, our findings highlight that combining species
 traits and phylogeny allow deeper insight into the evolutionary forces
 shaping soil biodiversity in montane ecosystems.
description: # Older lineages of oribatid mites in mountain ranges have broader
 geographic ranges and exhibit more generalistic traits Pan, X.,
 Heimburger, B., Chen, W., Lu, Z., Cordes, P. H., Xie, Z., Sun, X., Liu,
 D., Wu, D., Scheu, S., Schaefer, I., & Maraun, M. (2025). Older
 Lineages of Oribatid Mites in Mountain Ranges Have Broader Geographic
 Ranges and Exhibit More Generalistic Traits. Ecology and Evolution, 15(3),
 e71046.
 [https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.71046](https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.71046)
 Published Article
 Link:  [https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.71046](https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.71046)  **OR ** [https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ece3.71046](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ece3.71046) ## Description of the data and file structure We have submitted all our related documents including supplementary files (* 7), Code (* 1), and raw data (* 6). Dryad Dataset Link: [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.2bvq83bz0](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.2bvq83bz0) ### Raw Data **1 ----- "Data___for_annotated_tree.csv"** ===== This file is for statistical analyses. It includes species name, taxonomic assignment, node age, sampling sites and their traits (i.e. reproductive mode, trophic variation and distribution), which were used to map them into the phylogenetic tree. Specifically, variables from column A to column K are mountain, overlapped, infraorder, family, genus, species, species_name_in_bigtree_logfile, node_age, reproductive_mode, trophic_variation, distribution_area. \| column | variables | units | description | \| A | mountain | categorical | Oribatid mites were collected from the Alps, Changbai Mountain or both the two mountains | \| B | overlapped | categorical | Oribatid mites were collected from the Alps, Changbai Mountain or both the two mountains | \| C | infraorder | categorical | Infomation are given according to Subías (2022) | \| D | family | categorical | Infomation are given according to Subías (2022) | \| E | genus | categorical | Infomation are given according to Subías (2022) | \| F | species | categorical | oribatid mite species name| \| G | species_name_in_bigtree_logfile | categorical | species_name_in_bigtree_logfile "76and3_BEAST_Run06-Tree.nex"  | \| H | node_age | mya | million years ago | \| I | reproductive_mode | categorical | sex=secual oribatid mites, parthen= parthenogenetic oribatid mites | \| J | trophic_variation | Δ15N | Standard deviation in Δ15N value of oribatid mites | \| K | distribution_area | km2 | oribatid mite species distribution area| *Subías, L. S. 2022a. “Listado sistemático, sinonímico y biogeográfico de los ácaros oribátidos (Acariformes, Oribatida) del mundo (excepto fósiles) (17a actualización).”* **2 ----- "Data___range_size.csv"** ===== This file is for statistical analyses. It includes species name, taxonomic assignment, sampling sites and their range size (km-2) data. Specifically, variables from column A to column H are mountain, overlapped, infraorder, family, genus, species, species_name_in_bigtree_logfile, and distribution_area. Row 2 to row 29 is for the Alps, and row 30 to row 49 is for Changbai Mountain. \| column | variables | units | description | \| A | mountain | categorical | Oribatid mites were collected from the Alps, Changbai Mountain or both the two mountains | \| B | overlapped | categorical | Oribatid mites were collected from the Alps, Changbai Mountain or both the two mountains | \| C | infraorder | categorical | Infomation are given according to Subías (2022) | \| D | family | categorical | Infomation are given according to Subías (2022) | \| E | genus | categorical | Infomation are given according to Subías (2022) | \| F | species | categorical | oribatid mite species name| \| G | species_name_in_bigtree_logfile | categorical | species_name_in_bigtree_logfile "76and3_BEAST_Run06-Tree.nex"  | \| H | distribution_area | km2 | oribatid mite species distribution area| *Subías, L. S. 2022a. “Listado sistemático, sinonímico y biogeográfico de los ácaros oribátidos (Acariformes, Oribatida) del mundo (excepto fósiles) (17a actualización).”* **3 ----- "Data___trophic_variation.csv"** ===== This file is for statistical analyses. It includes species name, taxonomic assignment, sampling sites and their trophic data (15N). Specifically, variables from column A to column I are mountain, overlapped, infraorder, family, genus, species, mean_D15N, sd_D15N and number_of_measurments. Row 2 to row 28 is for the Alps, and row 29 to row 46 is for Changbai Mountain. This data only has 37 species not 40 species since 3 species lack of their trophic data: "Carabodes_coriaceus" from Alps were include in the phylogenetic tree but we don't have its trophic data; "Hypochthonius_rufulus" and "Punctoribates_punctum" from Changbai were include in the phylogenetic tree but we don't have their trophic data. \| column | variables | units | description | \| A | mountain | categorical | Oribatid mites were collected from the Alps, Changbai Mountain or both the two mountains | \| B | overlapped | categorical | Oribatid mites were collected from the Alps, Changbai Mountain or both the two mountains | \| C | infraorder | categorical | Infomation are given according to Subías (2022) | \| D | family | categorical | Infomation are given according to Subías (2022) | \| E | genus | categorical | Infomation are given according to Subías (2022) | \| F | species | categorical | oribatid mite species name| \| G | mean_D15N | Δ15N | Mean Δ15N value of oribatid mites  | \| H | sd_D15N | Δ15N | Standard deviation in Δ15N value of oribatid mites | \| I | number_of_measurments | number | Number of measurements for oribatid mites to get mean Δ15N values and standard deviation Δ15N values | *Subías, L. S. 2022a. “Listado sistemático, sinonímico y biogeográfico de los ácaros oribátidos (Acariformes, Oribatida) del mundo (excepto fósiles) (17a actualización).”* **4 ----- "14_species_18S_consensus_uploaded_to_NCBI.fasta"**  ===== Species sequences generated from this study. Readers can also download them from NCBI GenBank using accession number OR820193– OR820206. **5 ----- "76and3_BEAST_Run06-Tree.nex"** ===== The chronogram of oribatid mite species from the Eurasian continent (76 species) generated in BEAST v2.7.5. **6 ----- "76and3_MAFFT_align_Gblocks_withgaps.fasta"** ===== The final alignment file which was used to build the phylogenetic tree afterwards. It contain 76 sequences of oribatid mites and three sequences of outgroups. To eliminate poorly aligned positions and divergent regions of the alignment, this final alignment (1490 bp) of 79 sequences was shortened based on the preliminary alignment using the Gblocks 0.91b with ‘allow gap positions within the final blocks’ option. ### Supplementary files Supplementary_materials_for_Methods_SuppInfo.docx ===== This file contains (a) DNA extraction, PCR and sequencing of oribatid mites from the two mountains and (b) Phylogeny of the all representative oribatid mites in Eurasia. Figure S1-S4_SuppInfo.pdf ===== This file contains four supplementary figures.  TableS1_15N_SuppInfo.xlsx ===== Oribatid mites from the Alps and Changbai Mountain with their mean and standard deviation values in 15N and number of measurements at each mountain. Species names in bold imply that they occurred at both of the two mountains. TableS2_range_size_meta_data_SuppInfo.xlsx ===== The geographic regions of the occurrence of oribatid mites according to Subías (2022), their English translation, their area size (km²) and the internet source from which the respective size of each region was extracted. TableS3_dataset_1-9_SuppInfo.xlsx ===== 18S sequence from the Alps, Changbai Mountain and NCBI for creating the Eurasia oribatid species phylogeny tree. Their family, superfamily, infraorder and geographical regions were given according to Subías (2022). Specie which accession number is in read means it was generated form this study. See Materials and Methods for more details about Dataset 1–9. TableS4_species_age_and_mountain_stages_SuppInfo.xlsx ===== The node age of each species extracted from the ultrametric tree generated by BEAST (Figure S4) and different mountain uplift stages at the Alps and Changbai Mountain, respectively. Species names in bold imply that they occurred at both of the two mountains. TableS5_range_size_species_SuppInfo.xlsx ===== Oribatid mites from the Alps and Changbai Mountain with their geographical regions and geographical range size (km²). Species names in bold imply that they occurred at both of the two mountains. ### Code/Software Rscript.R ===== All data were analysed in R (version 4.1.3), including the packages "stats", "ape", "vegan", "phytools", "caper", and "ggplot2". The R script is structured by different headers/ comments leading through the script. The R script can be used to reproduce results.