Ground-dwelling arthropods, primarily predators and detritivores, for a large part of the energy flow through ecosystems, but there are few long-term studies looking at many taxa. These animals have been monitored at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge in central
We used canonical correlation (CCA) and regression of log-transformed abundance data to determine the most influential factors from among temperature, precipitation and aNPP. To examine changes in abundance over time we used an ordination based on Euclidean distance and a cluster analysis to produce dendrograms for the sites and seasons.
CCA and regression analyses showed that the most important environmental factors affecting ground arthropod abundance were minimum winter temperature, the previous year’s summer precipitation, and aboveground NPP, with no association to ENSO events. CCA also showed that arthropod taxonomic families, life-history types, and trophic groups all were significantly predicted by the above climate and plant production variables.
The ground-dwelling arthropod assemblages examined in this study were relatively insensitive to climate changes lasting one or two years, such as ENSO events, but were instead surprisingly consistent from year to year despite considerable interannual change. The temperate semi-arid climate of our study area is characterized by variable precipitation and large temperature ranges, and the arthropods appear to have adapted well to the more predictable seasonal temperature changes and the long-term pattern of predominately summer precipitation. If climate change alters these cues, changes in ground arthropod taxonomic composition and abundance may follow, with important implications for changes in ecosystem function.