<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>This paper examines the role of ecological factors, derived from principal component analysis performed on edaphic and vegetational dataset as well as spatial variables, in structuring the soil macrofauna community of the Dnipro floodplain within the ‘Dnipro-Orilsky’ Nature Reserve (Ukraine). The soil macrofauna was defined as invertebrates visible to the naked eye (macroscopic organisms). The test points formed a regular grid with a mesh size of 3 m with 7 × 15 dimensions. Thus, the total test point number was 105. At each point, soil-zoological samples of 0.25 × 0.25 m were taken for quantifying the soil macrofauna. The spatial structure was modeled by a set of independent spatial patterns obtained by means of principal coordinates of neighbor matrices analysis (PCNM-variables). Spatial PCNM-variables explain significantly more variations of the community (19.9%) than edaphic factors (4.1%) and vegetation factors (3.2%). Spatial and combined environmental and spatial effects were divided into three components: broad-scale component was characterized by periodicity of spatial variation with a wavelength of 24.0–44.5 m, medium-scale – 11.1–20 m, fine-scale – 6.6–11.0 m. For a broad-scale component, environmental factors of a vegetational nature are more important, for medium-scale, edaphic factors are more important, for fine-scale, both vegetation and edaphic are important. For litter-dwelling animals, the most characteristic spatial patterns are on the broad and medium-scale levels. For endogeic and anecic animals, the most significant variability is on the fine-scale level.</p></abstract>

This paper examines the role of ecological factors, derived from principal component analysis performed on edaphic and vegetational dataset as well as spatial variables, in structuring the soil macrofauna community of the Dnipro floodplain within the ‘Dnipro-Orilsky’ Nature Reserve (Ukraine). The soil macrofauna was defined as invertebrates visible to the naked eye (macroscopic organisms). The test points formed a regular grid with a mesh size of 3 m with 7 × 15 dimensions. Thus, the total test point number was 105. At each point, soil-zoological samples of 0.25 × 0.25 m were taken for quantifying the soil macrofauna. The spatial structure was modeled by a set of independent spatial patterns obtained by means of principal coordinates of neighbor matrices analysis (PCNM-variables). Spatial PCNM-variables explain significantly more variations of the community (19.9%) than edaphic factors (4.1%) and vegetation factors (3.2%). Spatial and combined environmental and spatial effects were divided into three components: broad-scale component was characterized by periodicity of spatial variation with a wavelength of 24.0–44.5 m, medium-scale – 11.1–20 m, fine-scale – 6.6–11.0 m. For a broad-scale component, environmental factors of a vegetational nature are more important, for medium-scale, edaphic factors are more important, for fine-scale, both vegetation and edaphic are important. For litter-dwelling animals, the most characteristic spatial patterns are on the broad and medium-scale levels. For endogeic and anecic animals, the most significant variability is on the fine-scale level.

The role of edaphic, vegetational and spatial factors in structuring soil animal communities in a floodplain forest of the Dnipro river

Department of Zoology and Ecology, Faculty of Biology and Ecology

Folia Oecologica

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

This paper examines the role of ecological factors, derived from principal component analysis performed on edaphic and vegetational dataset as well as spatial...

The role of edaphic, vegetational and spatial factors in structuring soil animal communities in a floodplain forest of the Dnipro river

Published Online: Jun 19, 2018

Page range: 8 - 23

Received: Dec 31, 2017

Accepted: Apr 10, 2018

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/foecol-2018-0002

Keywords
ecological groups, ecological niche, environmental factors, neutral diversity, spatial variation

© 2018 Oleksandr V. Zhukov et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

The role of edaphic, vegetational and spatial factors in structuring soil animal communities in a floodplain forest of the Dnipro river

Published Online: Jun 19, 2018

Page range: 8 - 23

Received: Dec 31, 2017

Accepted: Apr 10, 2018

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/foecol-2018-0002

Keywordsecological groups, ecological niche, environmental factors, neutral diversity, spatial variation

© 2018 Oleksandr V. Zhukov et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Keywords
ecological groups, ecological niche, environmental factors, neutral diversity, spatial variation