Abundance data from soil macro-invertebrates along a subalpine land-use transect

Here we present abundance data as individuals per m² of soil macro-invertebrates from Alpine habitats of different management techniques. In detail, we took 144 soil monoliths from four different land-use types: (1) grazed dry pastures, (2) intensively used hay meadows, (3) larch and (4) spruce forests. All sites were comparable concerning bedrock and exposition. Additionally, we measured pH, organic matter content, C- and N-content, as well as soil temperature and soil moisture. We found the highest abundances on the intensively used hay meadows, followed by the larch forests, the spruce forests, and the dry pastures. Diptera larvae and Lumbricidae were predominant in hay meadows, while in larch forests we found the highest number of Coleoptera larvae, Araneae and Symphyla. In comparison to the other land-use types the dry pastures harbored most Gastropoda individuals, no special taxa were observed in the spruce forests. At species level, the larch forests had the highest biodiversity with 73 species 73, followed by the hay meadows with 44 species, the spruce forest with 42 species and the dry pasture with 36 species. Despite showing a lower biodiversity, we found more rare and specialist species in the extensive dry pastures compared to the more generalist species assemblages in the other habitats, supporting the high conservational value of extensively managed Alpine landscapes, which are currently threatened by environmental and socio-economic changes such as the cessation of traditional cultivation, but also climate change are influencing mountain ecosystems.