8/3/2023 0 Comments Pitfall trap deer![]() These animals can vary widely in size from very tiny to larger than a hand. We mostly like to study a type of invertebrates that often live in the leaf-litter layer and that have external skeletons, segmented bodies, and pairs of appendages with joints: the arthropods. To complete the decomposition process of the falling leaves (brown arrow), sunlight, rainfall and a good airflow are also necessary.Ībout 97% of the species of soil fauna are invertebrates, animals without an internal skeleton such as nematodes, potworms, earthworms, slugs, or snails. Orange arrows show the decomposition process, by which dead matter is transformed into food from which plants feed upon. Black arrows show “who eats whom,” and organisms can be classified into: (1) primary decomposers that directly feed on the leaf-litter (2) secondary decomposers that feed on primary decomposers (3) small predators that feed on primary and secondary decomposers and (4) large predators that feed on small predators and large decomposers. The abundance and diversity of soil fauna is critical for soil health.Hence, sampling and analyzing these creatures is essential if we are to understand and preserve the soils and the functions they supply. Therefore, a soil with greater abundance and diversity of fauna will provide more benefits and this is why these organisms are good indicators of soil health. Other soil-living animals are natural enemies of pests, helping farmers to protect their crops. Moreover, some of these animals act as ecosystem engineers, creating, modifying, and maintaining the soil structure (as ants or earthworms when digging holes). Without decomposer animals healthy soils would disappear, and both wildlife and humanity would be affected. For example, one of these functions is the decomposition of dead animals and plants, a process in which dead matter is transformed into food from which plants feed on ( Figure 1, orange arrows). Among this overwhelming biodiversity, soil fauna perform many important functions necessary for both soil health and human well-being. Currently, we do not know how many species of animals, fungi, and bacteria live in the first four meters of soil ( Figure 1, soil profile) but we do know that soils contain the greatest biodiversity on Earth, with about 1.5 million described species out of a total of an estimated 2 billion. These relationships between living beings are called interactions, which take place when organisms communicate, feed on each other or pollinate flowers, among others. Soils are largely unknown universes, complex systems formed by a mixture of air, minerals, organic compounds, and living organisms that are related to each other and with the environment. Why Are Living Beings So Important for Soils? Comparatively, our traps capture more active animals and prevent predators from killing prey inside, which will improve the accuracy of future studies all over the world. Here, we show how these traps are better for studying animal activity (how much they move in the soil) compared to the most used devices to date, pitfall traps. To this end, we built a new type of traps to catch live soil animals, which we called cul-de-sac and basket traps. The health of soils depends largely on the presence of decomposers, and thus it is necessary to study how these creatures may be affected by climate change. ![]() ![]() Others, called decomposers, consume dead plants, and the waste of other living beings (their feces and their dead bodies), and transform them into food for plants. Some eat live plants, live animals, or both. Hundreds of thousands of little creatures live in soils. ![]()
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