中国土壤动物生态地理学研究现状与展望

Status and perspective of soil fauna eco-geography in China

土壤动物多样性及其影响的地表过程是陆地生态系统健康的重要基础。中国的土壤动物研究已走过70余春秋,在土壤动物群落的物种组成及地理分布格局等方面取得了丰硕成果。随着土壤动物生态功能日益受到重视,土壤动物生态地理学——作为土壤动物地理格局与生态系统服务的联系桥梁,迎来了新的发展契机。土壤动物地理学研究可分为4个维度:1)土壤动物群落表观特征的时空格局;2)土壤动物群落食性与习性等群落内在特征的时空格局;3)土壤动物相关的生物和非生物互作关系的时空格局;4)土壤动物相关或调控的关键生态过程的时空格局。传统的土壤动物地理学研究以土壤动物本身及其地理分布为焦点,为使其能更直接地与生态系统服务相联系,建议:1)从纯粹的生物地理学研究转向土壤动物群落相关或主导的重要“关系”和“生态过程”的时空格局研究;2)拓展土壤动物地理学研究的时空尺度;3)探究多尺度-多因子-多过程土壤动物相关数据的整合分析方法;4)构建土壤动物生态地理学研究的标准参照系。土壤动物生态地理学的研究目标是揭示土壤动物群落“生态位”变化规律,实现对土壤动物群落及其生态功能的精准调控,进而服务于生态系统健康和人类福祉。

As regulators of the surface land processes,soil fauna communities are the vital foundations for healthy terrestrial ecosystems.Soil fauna have been studied in China for more than 70 years.Great progresses have been achieved in exploring soil fauna species composition and geographical distribution patterns.Soil fauna eco-geography,as a bridge between soil fauna geographic patterns and ecosystem services,has a new development opportunity with the deep recognition of soil fauna ecological functions.Soil fauna eco-geography research could be partitioned into four dimensions including the spatio-temporal patterns of:1)the apparent characteristics of soil fauna community,such as species composition,richness and abundance;2)the intrinsic characteristics of soil fauna community,such as dietary and habits;3)soil fauna-related biotic and abiotic interactions especially those indicating drivers of soil fauna community structure or shaping the roles of soil fauna in ecosystems;and 4)soil fauna-related or-regulated key ecological processes.Current studies focus solely on soil fauna themselves and their geographical distributions.To link soil fauna geography more closely with ecosystem services,we suggested that:1)converting the pure biogeography studies to those of revealing the spatio-temporal patterns of the soil fauna-related or regulated key relationships and ecological processes;2)expanding the temporal and spatial scales in soil fauna geographical research;3)exploring the integrated analysis approach for soil fauna-related data with multi-scales,multi-factors,and multi-processes;and 4)establishing standard reference systems for soil fauna eco-geographical researches.Hence,the change patterns of ecological niche of soil fauna communities could be illustrated,and precision mani-pulations of soil fauna communities and their ecological functions would become implementable,which finally contributes to ecosystem health and human well-being.