Environmental drivers of litter- and soil-dwelling springtail communities across European forests, assessed by morphotaxonomy and soil DNA metabarcoding

Springtails are abundant in forest litter and soils, where they play a crucial role in the transformation and decomposition of organic matter. However, most data on springtail communities originates from studies at the local and regional levels, while larger-scale studies are lacking. To address this gap, we applied standardized methods to investigate springtail communities in forests from a Europe-wide study, covering a pedo-climatic gradient across 25 sites in 17 countries. We evaluated which environmental factors influence springtail density and alpha- and beta-diversity. We sampled forest litter and underlying soil separately and applied both morphological identification and soil DNA metabarcoding. On average, we recorded approximately 2500 individuals m −2 for litter-dwelling and 10,500 individuals m −2 for soil-dwelling springtails, with the highest values recorded in the Arctic and Boreal regions and the lowest in the Mediterranean region. Species richness averaged 5.2 in the litter and 7.0 in the soil applying morphotaxonomy, whereas using metabarcoding indicated a higher richness of 10.2 in the soil. Using morphotaxonomy, the key factor influencing density and alpha-diversity of litter-dwelling springtails positively was litter dry mass, whereas mean annual temperature had a negative effect, and the key factors positively influencing the density of soil-dwelling springtail were soil N and clay content, whereas bulk soil density had a negative effect. When data from metabarcoding were used, similar key factors emerged. Our results demonstrate that metabarcoding represents a promising approach for future large-scale studies when simple and reliable methods are needed to rapidly assess shifts in springtail community profiles.

Authors

Institutions

Publication Details

Journal
Applied Soil Ecology
Published
2026-08-28
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsoil.2026.107377
Primary Topic
Environmental DNA in Biodiversity Studies
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

Funders

Controls
|||
ALL TIME
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
OCT
article

Environmental drivers of litter- and soil-dwelling springtail communities across European forests, assessed by morphotaxonomy and soil DNA metabarcoding

Juliane Filser, Maria Iamandei, Ellen Desie, Merrit Shanskiy et al.
Applied Soil Ecology
Environmental DNA in Biodiversity Studies
article

Environmental drivers of litter- and soil-dwelling springtail communities across European forests, assessed by morphotaxonomy and soil DNA metabarcoding

Juliane Filser, Maria Iamandei, Ellen Desie, Merrit Shanskiy, Ondřej Cudlín, Jessica Cuartero, Xavier Domene, Karen Vancampenhout, Juha Mikola, Aline Frossard, Olaf Schmidt, Beat Stierli, Cornelia Rißmann, Emiliya Velizarova, Tarja Silfver, José Paulo Sousa, Juan J. Jiménez, Paul Henning Krogh, Davorka Hackenberger, Ivano Brunner, Davey L. Jones, Melissa Dawes, Beat Frey, Maria J. I. Briones, Jérôme Cortet, Simonida Djuric
article en

Abstract

Springtails are abundant in forest litter and soils, where they play a crucial role in the transformation and decomposition of organic matter. However, most data on springtail communities originates from studies at the local and regional levels, while larger-scale studies are lacking. To address this gap, we applied standardized methods to investigate springtail communities in forests from a Europe-wide study, covering a pedo-climatic gradient across 25 sites in 17 countries. We evaluated which environmental factors influence springtail density and alpha- and beta-diversity. We sampled forest litter and underlying soil separately and applied both morphological identification and soil DNA metabarcoding. On average, we recorded approximately 2500 individuals m −2 for litter-dwelling and 10,500 individuals m −2 for soil-dwelling springtails, with the highest values recorded in the Arctic and Boreal regions and the lowest in the Mediterranean region. Species richness averaged 5.2 in the litter and 7.0 in the soil applying morphotaxonomy, whereas using metabarcoding indicated a higher richness of 10.2 in the soil. Using morphotaxonomy, the key factor influencing density and alpha-diversity of litter-dwelling springtails positively was litter dry mass, whereas mean annual temperature had a negative effect, and the key factors positively influencing the density of soil-dwelling springtail were soil N and clay content, whereas bulk soil density had a negative effect. When data from metabarcoding were used, similar key factors emerged. Our results demonstrate that metabarcoding represents a promising approach for future large-scale studies when simple and reliable methods are needed to rapidly assess shifts in springtail community profiles.

Applied Soil EcologyVol. 227
University College Dublin (IE), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ES), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), University of Helsinki (FI), University of Turku (FI), École Pratique des Hautes Études (FR), Bangor University (GB), University of Novi Sad (RS), University of Bremen (DE), Estonian University of Life Sciences (EE), Université de Montpellier (FR), Research Institute for Nature and Forest (BE), Aarhus University (DK), Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (CH), Natural Resources Institute Finland (FI), Centre d'Écologie Fonctionnelle et Évolutive (FR), Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier (FR), National Institute for Research and Development in Environmental Protection (RO), Czech Academy of Sciences, Global Change Research Institute (CZ), Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development (DE), Ministry of Environment and Water (BG), Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología (ES), Centre for Research on Ecology and Forestry Applications (ES), Center for Snow and Avalanche Studies (US), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (FR), University of Osijek (HR), Universidade de Vigo (ES), University of Coimbra (PT)
National Science Foundation, Government of the United Kingdom, UK Research and Innovation, European Commission, Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, Forschungsinstitut für biologischen Landbau, HORIZON EUROPE Framework Programme, Staatssekretariat für Bildung, Forschung und Innovation
Life in Land
Openalex Percentile: Top 18%
Environmental DNA in Biodiversity Studies
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
AI Navigator

Ask Laika to Summarize, Analyze, and Connect papers live on the map.

Summarize Papers & Methodologies

Extract key findings, datasets, and comparative methods across publications.

Benchmark Rankings & Visual Analytics

Rank top research institutions, authors, funders, topics, and journals by Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) and paper volume with instant charts.

Connect Distant Disciplines

Bridge topological clusters on the map to find hidden collaborative intersections.