The hidden oases: unveiling trophic dynamics in Namib's fog plant ecosystem.

The Namib Desert is a hyperarid coastal desert where fog is a major moisture source. We hypothesized that the fog-harvesting grass Stipagrostis sabulicola establishes an important ecological niche, termed the "Fog-Plant-Oases" (FPOs), and serves as the primary carbon source for the invertebrate community. To determine this, we measured the natural variations of the stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes (δC and δN) of invertebrates as well as that of plant biomass and belowground detritus and estimated the contributions of the fog plants in their diets.

The MetaInvert soil invertebrate genome resource provides insights into below-ground biodiversity and evolution.

Soil invertebrates are among the least understood metazoans on Earth. Thus far, the lack of taxonomically broad and dense genomic resources has made it hard to thoroughly investigate their evolution and ecology. With MetaInvert we provide draft genome assemblies for 232 soil invertebrate species, representing 14 common groups and 94 families.

Ecology, genetics and distribution of Punctoribates zachvatkini, an oribatid mite so far overlooked in Germany.

Punctoribates is one of few genera in Poronota (Acari: Oribatida) containing species with porose areas and species with saccules, the two types of the octotaxic system. These porose organs are the main difference between two morphologically similar species, P. punctum with porose areas and P.

Shotgun metagenomics of soil invertebrate communities reflects taxonomy, biomass, and reference genome properties.

Metagenomics - shotgun sequencing of all DNA fragments from a community DNA extract - is routinely used to describe the composition, structure, and function of microorganism communities. Advances in DNA sequencing and the availability of genome databases increasingly allow the use of shotgun metagenomics on eukaryotic communities. Metagenomics offers major advances in the recovery of biomass relationships in a sample, in comparison to taxonomic marker gene-based approaches (metabarcoding).

Parthenogenetic . sexual reproduction in oribatid mite communities.

The dominance of sex in Metazoa is enigmatic. Sexual species allocate resources to the production of males, while potentially facing negative effects such as the loss of well-adapted genotypes due to recombination, and exposure to diseases and predators during mating. Two major hypotheses have been put forward to explain the advantages of parthenogenetic versus sexual reproduction in animals, that is, the Red Queen hypothesis and the Tangled Bank/Structured Resource Theory of Sex.

Slow-moving soil organisms on a water highway: aquatic dispersal and survival potential of Oribatida and Collembola in running water.

Background: Oribatida and Collembola are an important part of the soil food web and increase soil fertility by contributing to the recycling of nutrients out of dead organic matter. Active locomotion enables only limited dispersal in these tiny, wingless arthropods, while passive dispersal plays an important role for long-distance dispersal. Previous investigations have focused on passive transport by wind, other animals, or sea currents, whereas studies on transport via running water are missing.

The nuclear 28S gene fragment D3 as species marker in oribatid mites (Acari, Oribatida) from German peatlands.

To make oribatid mites an applicable tool in monitoring programs it is necessary to find a molecular species marker that allows distinct, rapid and easy species identification. In previous studies, the common barcoding sequence COI showed to be too variable to serve as species marker in oribatid mites. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the potential use of the D3 region of the nuclear 28S rDNA gene for species identification.

Convergent evolution of aquatic life by sexual and parthenogenetic oribatid mites.

Convergent evolution is one of the main drivers of traits and phenotypes in animals and plants. Here, we investigated the minimum number of independent colonisations of marine and freshwater habitats in derived oribatid mites (Brachypylina), a mainly terrestrial taxon. Furthermore, we investigated whether the reproductive mode (sexual vs.

Checklist of earthworms (Oligochaeta: Lumbricidae) from Germany.

A checklist of the German earthworm fauna (Oligochaeta: Lumbricidae) is presented, including published data, data from reports, diploma- and PhD- theses as well as unpublished data from museum collections, research institutions and private persons. Overall, 16,000 datasets were analyzed to produce the first German checklist of Lumbricidae. The checklist comprises 46 earthworm species from 15 genera and provides ecological information, zoogeographical distribution type and information on the species distribution in Germany.