DOI: 10.5061/dryad.3r2280gqm
title: Data from: Temporal variation of soil microarthropods in different forest types and regions of Central Europe

description: Biodiversity and biomass of aboveground arthropods in Central European
 forests continuously declined during the last decade. However, whether
 belowground microarthropod communities follow similar patterns has not
 been investigated. In this study, we compared the abundance, diversity,
 community composition, stability and asynchrony of oribatid mites (Acari:
 Oribatida) sampled in four forest types of increasing management intensity
 (unmanaged beech, old managed beech, young managed beech, and coniferous)
 at three-year intervals from 2008 to 2020. Forest sites were replicated in
 three regions in southern, central and northern Germany, i.e. the Swabian
 Alb, Hainich-Dün and the Schorfheide Chorin, which differ in soil
 characteristics and climate. We found 25,152 individuals and 121 species
 of oribatid mites and detected no linear decline in abundance and
 diversity over the last decade, suggesting that microarthropods in forest
 soils are buffered against land-use effects. However, we observed that
 years with low winter precipitation in regions with soils that are prone
 to drought, resulted in significant decreases in oribatid mite densities.
 Community compositions remained similar across sampling years, but
 differed between regions and forest types, predominantly due to
 differences in the proportion of asexual individuals. The stability of
 oribatid mite communities did not decrease in managed forests and was
 highest in deep soils with high water-holding capacity, which may reduce
 temporal variation, suggesting that soil properties are more important for
 the stability of oribatid mite communities than forest management.
 However, stability patterns were not explained by asynchrony in species
 fluctuations, as all communities either showed a high degree of synchrony
 or were not different from random. Our study highlights that the temporal
 dynamics of belowground communities may differ from those aboveground, and
 that regional differences in precipitation and soil properties are more
 important than forest types.
description: Species abundance data for oribatid mites sampled with soil cores
 from unmanaged beech, managed beech and spruce forests in three regions of
 Germany at three-year intervals from 2008 to 2020. Excel spreadsheets also
 contain environmental data and traits used for the analysis (please see
 methods section and README). 
description: # oik.10513\_data
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.3r2280gqm](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.3r2280gqm) \**Oribatida_2008_2020_AJ_nosingles.xlsx (Only sheet 1 is relevant for the analysis) ** Spreadsheet with species that were present in at least two sampling years, to reproduce the second section of the analysis (Community composition, Stability, Synchrony, Variance Ratio, Growth Rates).  Column informations: plotyear: Sampling site and year of sampling Abundance: Rowsums of the species abundance data given in columns "C" to "CW".  Columns "C" to "CW": Currently valid scientific names of oribatid mite species and their individual abundance for each site and sampling year. LandScape: The three sampling regions in Germany [Swabian Alb (Alb), Hainich Dün (Hai), Schorfheide Chorin (Sch)]. forest.type: Coniferous forests (Conif), near-natural beech forests, unmanaged for at least 60 years, with an approximate tree age of 150 years (B150), actively managed mature stands (approx. 70 years, B70), and actively managed young stands (30 years, B30) Plot: Sampling site year: sampling year Precipitation_winter_mean: Mean values for precipitation (mm) in winter (December to February) calculated from hourly measurements of the RADOLAN (Radar Online Adjustment) product of the German Weather Service (Deutscher Wetterdienst). airtemp_2m_above_winter_mean: Mean values for air temperature (°C) at 2 meters height in winter (December to February) calculated from hourly measurements of the RADOLAN (Radar Online Adjustment) product of the German Weather Service (Deutscher Wetterdienst). Precipitation_wintersum: Mean values of the total precipitation (mm) in winter  (December to February) calculated from hourly measurements of the RADOLAN (Radar Online Adjustment) product of the German Weather Service (Deutscher Wetterdienst). airtemp_2m_above_spring_mean: Mean values for air temperature (°C) at 2 meters height in spring (March to May) calculated from hourly measurements of the RADOLAN (Radar Online Adjustment) product of the German Weather Service (Deutscher Wetterdienst). Precipitation_spring_mean: Mean values for air temperature (°C) at 2 meters height in spring (March to May) calculated from hourly measurements of the RADOLAN (Radar Online Adjustment) product of the German Weather Service (Deutscher Wetterdienst). Precipitation_spring_sum: Mean values of the total precipitation (mm) in spring (March to May) calculated from hourly measurements of the RADOLAN (Radar Online Adjustment) product of the German Weather Service (Deutscher Wetterdienst). SMIr: Derived from a function of tree species and stand age. SMIr quantifies the age dependent probability of losing a stand before it reaches 180 years. SMId: Derived from a function of the silvicultural regime, stand age and tree species. SMId accounts for the deviation of the actual stocking from a fully stocked mature forest in terms of basal area, which has been modified by harvests and thinning. SMI: Combining SMIr and SMId (values range from 0 -1). Values approach 0 in unmanaged forests. Note that only SMI was used in the analysis.  Data in columns ("SMIr", "SMId", "SMI") were sourced from: *  Schall, P., Ammer, C. How to quantify forest management intensity in Central European forests. *Eur J Forest Res* **132**, 379–396 (2013). [[https://doi.org/10.1007/s10342-013-0681-6\\](https://doi.org/10.1007/s10342-013-0681-6\\) ]([https://doi.org/10.1007/s10342-013-0681-6\\](https://doi.org/10.1007/s10342-013-0681-6\\) * Schall, Peter; Ammer, Christian (2023): SMI annual dynamics - Silvicultural Management Intensity Dynamics on all forest EPs, 2008 - 2020. Version 9. Biodiversity Exploratories Information System. Dataset. [https://www.bexis.uni-jena.de](https://www.bexis.uni-jena.de). Dataset ID= 31217 Cmic_litter: Microbial biomass per g of leaf litter (µg Cmic g-1).  body_size: Abundance weighted community body size of adult oribatid mites in µM. The formula is given in the sheet 2 ("community bode size"). Please also see: Brückner et al. 2018 [https://doi.org/10.1080/01647954.2018.1508248](https://doi.org/10.1080/01647954.2018.1508248). Note the "NA" in row 218 because no oribatid mites were found in this site. proportion.parthenogenetic: The proportion of parthenogenetic mites (in %) for each sampling site calculated as: the sum of parthenogenetic mites / total number of oribatid mites)*100. Note the "NA" in row 218 because no oribatid mites were found in this site. Information on the reproductive mode and body size for each species is given in sheet 3 ("Traits"). \**Oribatida_2008-2020_AJ.xlsx ** Spreadsheet with all oribatid mite species (including single findings) to reproduce the first section of the analysis (linear mixed-effects models, total diversity). All columns except are also present in the dataset "Oribatida_2008_2020_AJ_nosingles.xlsx" are identical. Junggebauer_et_al._2024.R Code used to produce the main results of the study, including test statistics and figures. All analyses were performed in R v 4.2.3 (R Core Team 2023).