Litter microbial and soil faunal communities stimulated in the wake of a volcanic eruption in a semi-arid woodland in Patagonia, Argentina

Large-scale disturbances can be important components of the temporal landscape of natural ecosystems, but generalities regarding ecosystem impacts are difficult due to their infrequent and unpredictable nature. Volcanic eruptions figure as one of the most prominent of these natural disturbances, but the effects on microbes and ground-dwelling arthropods, which modulate carbon and nutrient turnover, are relatively unknown.

We evaluated the effects of the 2011 Puyehue-Cordón Caulle eruption in Patagonia, Argentina, on the litter and soil microbial and faunal communities in natural and afforested semi-arid ecosystems located 70 km west of the epicentre of the eruption. We hypothesized that volcanic ash deposition would strongly reduce soil faunal and microbial communities due to insecticidal effects of ash on arthropods, with a concomitant reduction in ecosystem processes.

Our objective was to quantify the impact of the volcanic eruption by comparing pre- and post-eruption time point...