Micronutrients are drivers of abundance, richness, and composition of soil insect communities in tropical rainforests
Abstract Communities of soil insects in tropical rainforests are among the richest and most complex, but the mechanisms structuring them remain mostly unknown. Identifying whether nutrient availability plays a relevant role in the assembly of these communities poses several challenges due to the div...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Wiley
2025-05-01
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| Series: | Ecosphere |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.70200 |
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| author | Miquel Ferrín Dolores Asensio Albert Gargallo‐Garriga Oriol Grau Joan Llusià Laura Màrquez Jérôme Murienne Romà Ogaya Jérôme Orivel Jordi Sardans Ivan A. Janssens Josep Peñuelas Guille Peguero |
| author_facet | Miquel Ferrín Dolores Asensio Albert Gargallo‐Garriga Oriol Grau Joan Llusià Laura Màrquez Jérôme Murienne Romà Ogaya Jérôme Orivel Jordi Sardans Ivan A. Janssens Josep Peñuelas Guille Peguero |
| author_sort | Miquel Ferrín |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Communities of soil insects in tropical rainforests are among the richest and most complex, but the mechanisms structuring them remain mostly unknown. Identifying whether nutrient availability plays a relevant role in the assembly of these communities poses several challenges due to the diverse nutritional requirements of insects. We investigated the importance of nutrient availability accounting for the abundance, richness, and composition of soil insect communities in tropical rainforests. We sampled soil insects in 72 1‐m2 sampling points at two sites in French Guiana, counted all specimens, and characterized each assemblage using DNA metabarcoding. We then determined the importance of nutrient availability by measuring 19 nutrient concentrations and collected 18,000 specimens from 2634 operational taxonomic units (OTUs). Despite an extraordinary diversity and spatial heterogeneity, the concentrations of sodium, potassium, and magnesium positively correlated with either the abundance or the richness of the communities. These micronutrients were also important predictors of the composition of the assemblages. However, we found different relationships when analyzing the data separately for Blattodea, Coleoptera, Hemiptera, Hymenoptera, and Orthoptera, the most abundant insect orders with the most OTUs. Our results demonstrated that the availability of micronutrients played a large role in species selection during the assembly of the soil insect communities in these tropical rainforests, in contrast to the null impact of macronutrients. By accounting for the response at lower taxonomic levels, we argue that part of the unexplained variance might arise from contrastingly different responses to micronutrient availability among the most diverse orders. The high unexplained variance, however, also suggests that processes such as stochastic population drift and biotic interactions likely play complementary roles in structuring insect communities in the soils of tropical rainforests. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-5f41d90c0a414fc986da3944053e6544 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2150-8925 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-05-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Ecosphere |
| spelling | doaj-art-5f41d90c0a414fc986da3944053e65442025-08-20T03:05:52ZengWileyEcosphere2150-89252025-05-01165n/an/a10.1002/ecs2.70200Micronutrients are drivers of abundance, richness, and composition of soil insect communities in tropical rainforestsMiquel Ferrín0Dolores Asensio1Albert Gargallo‐Garriga2Oriol Grau3Joan Llusià4Laura Màrquez5Jérôme Murienne6Romà Ogaya7Jérôme Orivel8Jordi Sardans9Ivan A. Janssens10Josep Peñuelas11Guille Peguero12Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Bellaterra SpainCSIC, Global Ecology Unit CREAF‐CSIC‐UAB Bellaterra SpainUniversitat Autònoma de Barcelona Bellaterra SpainCSIC, Global Ecology Unit CREAF‐CSIC‐UAB Bellaterra SpainCSIC, Global Ecology Unit CREAF‐CSIC‐UAB Bellaterra SpainCSIC, Global Ecology Unit CREAF‐CSIC‐UAB Bellaterra SpainCentre de Recherche sur la Biodiversité et l'Environnement (CRBE UMR5300) – Université de Toulouse, CNRS, IRD, Toulouse INP Université Toulouse 3 Paul Sabatier (UT3) Toulouse FranceCSIC, Global Ecology Unit CREAF‐CSIC‐UAB Bellaterra SpainUMR EcoFoG, AgroParisTech, CIRAD, CNRS, INRAE Université des Antilles Kourou FranceCSIC, Global Ecology Unit CREAF‐CSIC‐UAB Bellaterra SpainDepartment of Biology Antwerp University Wilrijk BelgiumCSIC, Global Ecology Unit CREAF‐CSIC‐UAB Bellaterra SpainCSIC, Global Ecology Unit CREAF‐CSIC‐UAB Bellaterra SpainAbstract Communities of soil insects in tropical rainforests are among the richest and most complex, but the mechanisms structuring them remain mostly unknown. Identifying whether nutrient availability plays a relevant role in the assembly of these communities poses several challenges due to the diverse nutritional requirements of insects. We investigated the importance of nutrient availability accounting for the abundance, richness, and composition of soil insect communities in tropical rainforests. We sampled soil insects in 72 1‐m2 sampling points at two sites in French Guiana, counted all specimens, and characterized each assemblage using DNA metabarcoding. We then determined the importance of nutrient availability by measuring 19 nutrient concentrations and collected 18,000 specimens from 2634 operational taxonomic units (OTUs). Despite an extraordinary diversity and spatial heterogeneity, the concentrations of sodium, potassium, and magnesium positively correlated with either the abundance or the richness of the communities. These micronutrients were also important predictors of the composition of the assemblages. However, we found different relationships when analyzing the data separately for Blattodea, Coleoptera, Hemiptera, Hymenoptera, and Orthoptera, the most abundant insect orders with the most OTUs. Our results demonstrated that the availability of micronutrients played a large role in species selection during the assembly of the soil insect communities in these tropical rainforests, in contrast to the null impact of macronutrients. By accounting for the response at lower taxonomic levels, we argue that part of the unexplained variance might arise from contrastingly different responses to micronutrient availability among the most diverse orders. The high unexplained variance, however, also suggests that processes such as stochastic population drift and biotic interactions likely play complementary roles in structuring insect communities in the soils of tropical rainforests.https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.70200environmental filteringFrench Guianainsectslittermetabarcodingmicronutrients |
| spellingShingle | Miquel Ferrín Dolores Asensio Albert Gargallo‐Garriga Oriol Grau Joan Llusià Laura Màrquez Jérôme Murienne Romà Ogaya Jérôme Orivel Jordi Sardans Ivan A. Janssens Josep Peñuelas Guille Peguero Micronutrients are drivers of abundance, richness, and composition of soil insect communities in tropical rainforests Ecosphere environmental filtering French Guiana insects litter metabarcoding micronutrients |
| title | Micronutrients are drivers of abundance, richness, and composition of soil insect communities in tropical rainforests |
| title_full | Micronutrients are drivers of abundance, richness, and composition of soil insect communities in tropical rainforests |
| title_fullStr | Micronutrients are drivers of abundance, richness, and composition of soil insect communities in tropical rainforests |
| title_full_unstemmed | Micronutrients are drivers of abundance, richness, and composition of soil insect communities in tropical rainforests |
| title_short | Micronutrients are drivers of abundance, richness, and composition of soil insect communities in tropical rainforests |
| title_sort | micronutrients are drivers of abundance richness and composition of soil insect communities in tropical rainforests |
| topic | environmental filtering French Guiana insects litter metabarcoding micronutrients |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.70200 |
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