Soil microarthropod density data for saddle snowfence and S slope of Niwot Ridge, 1992 - 1993.

These data were used in this publication: O'Lear, H.A., and T.R. Seastedt. 1994. Landscape patterns of litter decomposition in alpine tundra. Oecologia 99: 95-101. doi: 10.1007/BF00317088 Microarthropod densities in the upper 5 cm of soil were estimated for different alpine communities on Niwot Ridge in the Front Range of Colorado. Densitites were higher than previously reported and averaged 111,200 individualsgm2. Acari dominated this group and composed 80-90% of the fauna; Collembola composed an average of 15%. Oribatid mites composed 23-58% of total densities, while Prostigmatid mites composed 32-54%. The relative abundance of the Oribatid and Prostigmatid mites varied significantly across the landscape, with Prostigmatids more abundant in the xeric sites. Composition of the detritus-based food web appear to change substantially across the snow depth gradient found in the alpine tundra. NOTE: The LTER data portal display does not display important maintenance/log information or other EML metadata features. Please be sure to view the EML file (a text file that contains XML tags) which is included in the zip archive (click on "Download zip archive") pertaining to each dataset. The EML file name will have the following format: knb-lter-nwt.[3 digit dataset number].[version number].xml. Most web browsers can parse the EML so it's easier to read.