Traits of oribatid mite species that tolerate habitat disturbance due to pesticide application

We investigated whether disturbance tolerance correlates to species traits even among species that co-exist within the same habitat. For this purpose we disturbed a forest soil by a single pesticide (diflubenzuron) treatment. We described the responses of 14 oribatid mite species adopting meta-analytical concepts. We expected high tolerance in species (i) with short generation time, because they can recover quickly after the disturbance; (ii) which prefer the topsoil because they are less exposed to the disturbance than species that prefer the litter layer; and (iii) which feed on fresh macrophyte detritus, because it was less altered by the disturbance than fungal microphytes. We tested these expectations, adopting the concept of phylogenetically independent contrasts. We found that expectation (i) was confirmed when tolerance was inferred from changes in the abundance of species. Expectation (iii) was confirmed when tolerance was inferred from changes in the species' utilisation of the litter layer, which was the more disturbed part of the habitat. Expectation (ii) was not confirmed. We argue that generation time and diet may be the major determinants of the tolerance of species to the diflubenzuron disturbance. © 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.