Diversity of soil mesostigmata and their role on food webs in tropical land use systems
Summary:This research is part of a sub-project under the multidisciplinary project, "CRC 990: EFForTS" ("Collaborative Research Center 990: Ecological and Socio economic Functions of Tropical Lowland Rainforest Transformation Systems (Sumatra, Indonesia)"). Start from intensively oil palm plantations, this sub-project focuses on proper land management investigations to improve biodiversity and ecosystems function through ecological restoration by minimizing socio-economic losses. More specifically, this study focused on changes in ecological factors through analysis of the Mesostigmata functional diversity, as well as to understand the relationship pattern between biodiversity and ecosystems function on the conservation mechanism of oil palm plantations in Jambi Province. This research aims for (1) compare the abundance and diversity of Mesostigmata in in rainforest and oil palm plantations in Jambi Province, (2) compare the abundance and diversity of Mesostigmata in oil palm plantation intercropped with other fruit trees and conventional oil palm plantation, and (3) describe the trophic niches of different Mesostigmata species in rainforest and oil palm plantations to infer relationship between the biodiversity of Mesostigmata and ecosystems functions they perform.