ABSTRACT
Soil organisms drive major ecosystem functions by mineralising carbon and releasing nutrients during decomposition processes, which supports plant growth, aboveground biodiversity and, ...ultimately, human nutrition. Soil ecologists often operate with functional groups to infer the effects of individual taxa on ecosystem functions and services. Simultaneous assessment of the functional roles of multiple taxa is possible using food‐web reconstructions, but our knowledge of the feeding habits of many taxa is insufficient and often based on limited evidence. Over the last two decades, molecular, biochemical and isotopic tools have improved our understanding of the feeding habits of various soil organisms, yet this knowledge is still to be synthesised into a common functional framework. Here, we provide a comprehensive review of the feeding habits of consumers in soil, including protists, micro‐, meso‐ and macrofauna (invertebrates), and soil‐associated vertebrates. We have integrated existing functional group classifications with findings gained with novel methods and compiled an overarching classification across taxa focusing on key universal traits such as food resource preferences, body masses, microhabitat specialisation, protection and hunting mechanisms. Our summary highlights various strands of evidence that many functional groups commonly used in soil ecology and food‐web models are feeding on multiple types of food resources. In many cases, omnivory is observed down to the species level of taxonomic resolution, challenging realism of traditional soil food‐web models based on distinct resource‐based energy channels. Novel methods, such as stable isotope, fatty acid and DNA gut content analyses, have revealed previously hidden facets of trophic relationships of soil consumers, such as food assimilation, multichannel feeding across trophic levels, hidden trophic niche differentiation and the importance of alternative food/prey, as well as energy transfers across ecosystem compartments. Wider adoption of such tools and the development of open interoperable platforms that assemble morphological, ecological and trophic data as traits of soil taxa will enable the refinement and expansion of the multifunctional classification of consumers in soil. The compiled multifunctional classification of soil‐associated consumers will serve as a reference for ecologists working with biodiversity changes and biodiversity–ecosystem functioning relationships, making soil food‐web research more accessible and reproducible.
Diplura is the sister group to insects and one of the three basal hexapod groups with unique entognathan mouthparts. The order is divided into 10 families, which include 1008 species in 141 genera, ...with a high proportion of monotypic genera. They are ubiquitous in soils and subsurface terrestrial habitats, as well as have an important role in overall biogeochemical cycles.
We present the first comprehensive review of the global biodiversity and ecology of Diplura. We highlight four aspects of this basal hexapod group: diversity in morphological body plans and sizes; ecology in terrestrial environments from soil to caves; food preference and trophic levels, and their biogeographical and paleobiogeographical significance.
Diplura depends on high humidity and moderate temperatures. They are presumably very sensitive to anthropogenic pressures and climate change, and therefore are a suitable model for ecophysiological studies and evident priority targets for conservation.
We conclude that the future efforts should focus on establishing a molecular phylogeny to clarify the relationships between and within families, as well as to reveal global biogeographical patterns. This will require an increase in sampling effort in several regions of the globe, especially in tropical regions.
Diplura is the sister group to insects. The order is divided into 10 families, which include 1009 species in 141 genera, with a high proportion of monotypic genera.
Diplura depends on high humidity and moderate temperatures, are presumably very sensitive to anthropogenic pressures and climate change, and a suitable model for ecophysiological studies and priority targets for conservation.
Future efforts should focus on establishing a molecular phylogeny to clarify the relationships between and within families, as well as to reveal global biogeographical patterns.
In this paper we describe a new type of subterranean habitat associated with dry watercourses in the Eastern Iberian Peninsula, the "Alluvial Mesovoid Shallow Substratum" (alluvial MSS). Historical ...observations and data from field sampling specially designed to study MSS fauna in the streambeds of temporary watercourses support the description of this new habitat. To conduct the sampling, 16 subterranean sampling devices were placed in a region of Eastern Spain. The traps were operated for 12 months and temperature and relative humidity data were recorded to characterise the habitat. A large number of species was captured, many of which belonged to the arthropod group, with marked hygrophilous, geophilic, lucifugous and mesothermal habits. In addition, there was also a substantial number of species showing markedly ripicolous traits. The results confirm that the network of spaces which forms in alluvial deposits of temporary watercourses merits the category of habitat, and here we propose the name of "alluvial MSS". The "alluvial MSS" may be covered or not by a layer of soil, is extremely damp, provides a buffer against above ground temperatures and is aphotic. In addition, compared to other types of MSS, it is a very unstable habitat. It is possible that the "alluvial MSS" may be found in other areas of the world with strongly seasonal climatic regimes, and could play an important role as a biogeographic corridor and as a refuge from climatic changes.
A new cave-dwelling dipluran of the North American endemic genus
Haplocampa
is described, coming from a couple of caves excavated in a small limestone karstic area near Port Alberni, Vancouver Island ...(British Columbia, Canada). To
Haplocampa
belong five soil-dwelling species. L. M. Ferguson cited no less than eight more species living in soil and cave habitats in several US states but without producing any formal descriptions.
Haplocampa
, in spite of its large lateral crests on the unequal claws, has clear taxonomical features as a Campodeinae and is closely related with the cave-dwelling
Pacificampa
and
Eumesocampa
genera, due to sharing similar macrosetae body distribution and absence or reduction of the lateral process. The new proposed species,
Haplocampawagnelli
Sendra,
sp. n.
, is rather interesting for its troglomorphic features: antennae with 32 antennomeres; olfactory chemoreceptors, each a multiperforated, folded-spiral structure; and numerous gouge sensilla. In addition, it is one of the northernmost troglomorphic species to have colonised – presumably recently – an area occupied by the Late Wisconsinian North America ice sheet during the Last Glacial Maximum. Furthermore, the close affinities between
Haplocampa
,
Pacificampa
(from caves in the extreme east of continental Asia and the southern Japanese Islands),
Metriocampa
(from the east of Asia and North America) and
Eumesocampa
(endemic to North America) suggest probable dispersal events over the Bering Land Bridge.
Campodeinae is the most diverse subfamily of Campodeidae diplurans and inhabits soils and subsurface ecosystems. These are distributed in the Palearctic area, clearly rarifying towards northern ...latitudes. The major taxonomic characters are chaetotaxy, shape and complexity of pretarsal structures, and secondary sexual characters. This monograph provides a taxonomic revision of the subfamily Campodeinae in the Euro-Mediterrnean region, based on extensive literature review and new material studied. It comprises detailed morphological descriptions and illustrations together with habitat and distribution data of 161 species and 14 subspecies from 10 genera: Campodea Westwood, 1842, Edriocampa Silvestri, 1933, Eutrichocampa Silvestri, 1902, Helladocampa Condé, 1984, Libanocampa Condé, 1955, Litocampa Silvestri, 1933, Oreocampa Condé, 1950, Podocampa Silvestri, 1932, Remycampa Condé 1952, and Spaniocampa Silvestri, 1933. With 116 species Campodea is the most diverse and widely distributed genus in the studied area.
An unexpected new subgenus and species of Campodeidae (Diplura), Plusiocampa (Pentachaetocampa) inopinata subgen. et sp. nov., a troglobitic species found in Schallsinger Höhle in an isolated karstic ...region in southwestern Germany is described. The new taxon shows two unique characters for the genus Plusiocampa: five dorsal femoral macrosetae and the presence of g1-glandular setae in females. Two other Plusiocampa species have been studied and taxonomic remarks made for them; both are also cave dwelling species from Germany: Plusiocampa dobati Condé in Dobat, 1975 studied from eight caves in the Swabian Alb, and one unnamed species of Plusiocampa (Plusiocampa) from four caves in the Franconian Alb. The biogeographical and taxonomic affinities among Plusiocampa species of Central Europe are discussed. The distribution of Plusiocampa species in Central Europe runs alongside the frontier of the Pleistocene glaciations, with non-troglomorphic Plusiocampa species adjacent to the glacial limits and troglomorphic Plusiocampa species below. Worthy of note is the presence only in the northeast of the Central Alps of two relict Plusiocampinae species, the already known Hystrichocampa pelletieri Condé, 1948 and the new species P. (P.) inopinata subgen. et sp. nov.
Numerosos muestreos realizados por el territorio peninsular, a lo largo de estas tres últimas décadas, han deparado el hallazgo de Leistus (Pogonophorus) puncticeps Fairmaire & Laboulbène, 1854 en ...áreas geográficas en las que se desconocía su presencia hasta la fecha. Las nuevas citas amplían la distribución ibérica de la especie hacia enclaves mediterráneos meridionales, perfilando un patrón de distribución discontinuo por el tercio oriental. Al mismo tiempo, estos hallazgos revelan cierta variabilidad, muy leve, en la forma de la lámina apical del edeago. Por otro lado, se confirman los parajes quebrados y abruptos como enclaves potencialmente favorables para la supervivencia de esta especie, especialmente si disponen de laderas pedregosas. En general, las nuevas localidades en donde se ha hallado L. (P.) puncticeps, cuentan con precipitación escasa y torrencial, una pluviosidad media que ronda los 600-700 mm, y una notable amplitud térmica. Como novedad, y utilizando Estaciones de Muestreo Subterráneo (EMS), se ha colectado en el Medio Subterráneo Superficial (MSS). El hallazgo de esta especie en este singular medio hipogeo y en diversos enclaves ibéricos (Sierra del Moncayo, formaciones montañosas del norte de la provincia de Alicante y Sierra de María), pone de manifiesto su tendencia troglófila, y más probablemente de tipo subtroglófila. Los nuevos hallazgos, sumados a los ya conocidos, sugieren que L. (P.) puncticeps ha seguido la misma historia evolutiva que Leistus (Pogonophorus) montanus Stephens, 1827 y Leistus (Pogonophorus) parvicollis Chaudoir, 1869, constituyendo una triada de relictos glaciales, resultado de un proceso de especiación por vicarianza. Los cambios acaecidos en el período postglacial explicarían la distribución discontinua que muestra en la actualidad L. (P.) puncticeps, y su tendencia a explorar, en estos enclaves, el MSS.
Few species of Japygidae (Diplura) have been discovered in cave ecosystems despite their importance as large predators. A small collection of rare specimens of this hexapod group has allowed to ...explore the taxonomy of japygids from caves in New Zealand, Morocco and South Africa, and to describe one new genus: Imazighenjapyx Sendra & Sánchez-García gen. nov., as well as four new species: Austrjapyx wynbergensis Sendra & Sánchez-García sp. nov., Imazighenjapyx marocanus Sendra & Sánchez-García gen. et sp. nov., Opisthjapyx naledi Sendra & Sánchez-García sp. nov. and Teljapyx aotearoa Sendra & Sánchez-García sp. nov. For each of the new taxa we give a comprehensive description of their habitats. These new findings resulted in a revision of the distribution and allowed to re-evaluate the morphological traits of the fifteen cave-adapted japygids species already known worldwide. The functional morphology of the remarkable abdominal pincers of Japygidae and their adaptation to predation are discussed, as well as their potential role in mating behaviour.
A new obligately cavernicolous species in the planthopper family Kinnaridae is described from Spain. This is the first record of a cavernicolous kinnarid from the Old World, and the first record of a ...troglobitic fulgoromorphan hemipteran from mainland Spain, and also the 7sup.th cavernicolous kinnarid species worldwide. Epigean Kinnaridae are not known from the present-day fauna of the Iberian Peninsula nor from Western Europe at large. The new species is regarded as a relict from an ancient fauna which is now extinct. The new cavernicolous species could not be assigned to any of the existing genera, thus a new genus is established. Molecular data (COI barcode sequence) for the new species are presented. For the first time, a detailed description of the nymphal morphology of a kinnarid is provided. Information on its ecology, behaviour, distribution and conservation status is given, and biogeographic implications are discussed.
A new dipluran species, Plusiocampa (Plusiocampa) imereti Sendra & Barjadze sp. nov., from the deep zone in three caves in the Imereti region, Georgia, is described. This new troglobitic Plusiocampa ...is an addition to four others known Diplura from around the Black Sea region, two Dydimocampa and two Plusiocampa s. str. The present study also provides the first CO1 sequences for the Plusiocampinae taxa and the first molecular data for cave-dwelling Plusiocampa species. Although bootstrap values were low, the maximum-likelihood phylogenetic tree grouped Plusiocampa (P.) imereti Sendra & Barjadze sp. nov. with two Plusiocampa s. str. species from Eastern Europe. Morphologically, P. (P.) imereti Sendra & Barjadze sp. nov. is closely related to two cave-dwelling species: Plusiocampa (Plusiocampa) glabra Condé, 1984 and Plusiocampa (P.) chiosensis Sendra & Gasparo, 2020. The new species can be distinguished by the presence of lateral anterior macrosetae on metanotum, more uneven claws, and the presence of 2+2 lateral anterior macrosetae on middle urotergites. The five species currently known for the Black Sea region inhabit caves located at low altitude but with no influence from former glacial or permafrost processes.
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