Surface Soil Microarthropods

**The objective of the present research was to determine whether
there have been changes in the structure and function of the surface
(0-20cm) soil system, the zone most affected by litter
decomposition, which is associated with the rapid movement of
mesquite from historical habitats (arroyo and playa fringe) into
recent habitats (grassland and dunes). We hypothesized that the
soil biotic communities would be poorly developed in the recent
mesquite habitats because of lower soil C and nutrient
concentrations.
Data set contains microarthropod code, order, family, total
number of mites, and trophic group for microarthropods sampled at
two depth ranges in the top 20 cm of soil.