Soil fauna regulates litter decomposition and soil organic matter transformation, acting as both litter and microbial feeders. Whether these feeding modes shift along environmental gradients remains unclear. We tested if microbivory increases with decreasing litter quality and in colder climates, both factors limiting detritus digestion by fauna. Using stable isotope composition (δ 13 C, δ 15 N) of 7408 soil invertebrate sampl...

Aim Dung beetles perform key ecosystem functions in forests; however, their assemblage structure in temperate Asia is not well understood. This study investigated dung beetle assemblages across 18 forests in Japan to identify their patterns and the environmental variables influencing them. Location Japan. Taxon Forest dung beetles (Geotrupidae, Scarabaeidae). Methods We surveyed dung beetle assemblages in 18 forests spanning b...

Most theories attempting to explain the coexistence of species in local communities make fundamental assumptions regarding whether neighbors exhibit competitive, neutral, or positive resource–use interactions; however, few long‐term data from naturally assembled plant communities exist to test these assumptions. We utilized a 13‐year experiment consisting of factorial removal of three shrub species ( Vaccinium myrtillus , V. v...