Bottom-up or resource control is one of the most important aspects that determine the effects of climate change on soil fauna. It remains unclear whether the response of soil fauna to climate change is detritus-based or producer-based resource driven. Soil transplantation, from Heilongjiang to Jilin and Liaoning provinces, was used to simulate the effects of climate change on Collembola through different green or brown food resource treatments, which were represented by soybean cultivation (hereafter SC), land abandonment (LA), and vegetation removal (VR).

The results showed that soil southwestward transplantation to warmer region, Jilin and Liaoning, significantly increased density and biomass of Collembola in plant growth but not withered period. Structural equation modeling and redundancy analysis showed increasing food resources, such as plant biomass, microbial biomass, and soil organic carbon, during the warm or higher food-quality treatments directly increase the density and biomass of Collembola. Soil southwestward transplantation to warmer region, Jilin and Liaoning, significantly increase the density of Collembola in SC and LA. VR buffered the effect of soil transplantation on Collembola. It was concluded that the effects of soil transplantation on Collembola mainly occurred through the green but not brown food resource pathways.