Data from: Temporal variation of soil microarthropods in different forest types and regions of Central Europe

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.