Authors
Matthew L Meehan, Zhuoyan Song, Lisa M Lumley, Tyler P Cobb, Heather Proctor
Publication date
2019/7/1
Journal
Ecological Indicators
Volume
102
Pages
349-365
Publisher
Elsevier
Description
Soil systems provide numerous ecosystem services but are often degraded due to anthropogenic and natural disturbances. Invertebrates can be used as biological indicators to provide information on soil health. Mites (Arachnida: Acariformes, Parasitiformes) constitute the majority of invertebrates in soil; however, their small size and diversity make them a challenging group to identify. Identification to levels coarser than species (e.g., genus, family) can alleviate some of the taxonomic difficulties. Here we test whether two groups of soil mites, Mesostigmata and Oribatida, can indicate three disturbance types (fire, forest harvest and linear features such as seismic lines and roads) in the boreal forest in northern Alberta. We assessed this at three taxonomic levels: species, genus and family. Samples were collected by the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute from 2010 to 2015 from across Alberta. We paired disturbed …
Total citations
201920202021202220232024219475