Forest soil and litter is inhabited by a diverse community of animals, which directly and indirectly rely on dead organic matter as habitat and food resource. However, community composition may be driven by biotic or abiotic forces, and these vary with changes in habitat structure and resource supply associated with forest land use. To evaluate these changes, we compiled comprehensive data on the species composition of soil animal communities and environmental factors in forest types varying in land-use intensity in each of three regions in Germany, i.e., coniferous, young managed, old managed, and unmanaged beech forests. Coniferous forests featured high amounts of leaf litter and low microbial biomass concentrations contrasting in particular unmanaged beech forests. However, soil animal diversity and functional community composition differed little between forest types, indicating resilience against disturbance and forest land use. Structural equation modelling suggested that despite a significant influence of forest management on resource abundance and quality, the biomass of most soil fauna functional groups was not directly affected by forest management or resource abundance/quality, potentially because microorganisms hamper the propagation of nutrients to higher trophic levels. Instead, detritivore biomass depended heavily on soil pH. Macrofauna decomposers thrived at high pH, whereas mesofauna decomposers benefitted from low soil pH, but also from low biomass of macrofauna decomposers, potentially due to habitat modification by macrofauna decomposers. The strong influence of soil pH shows that decomposer communities are structured predominantly by regional abiotic factors exceeding the role of local biotic factors such as forest type.

森林土壤和垃圾被多种动物居住，它们直接和间接依靠死有机物质作为栖息地和食物资源。但是，社区构成可能是由生物或非生物力量驱动的，并且这些力量随生境结构和林地使用相关的资源供应的变化而变化。为了评估这些变化，我们汇总了德国三个地区中针叶林，幼林，老林和非山毛榉的土壤动物群落的物种组成和森林类型的环境因素的综合数据，这些森林类型的土地利用强度各不相同。森林。针叶林的叶子凋落物含量高，微生物生物量浓度低，特别是在未经管理的山毛榉林中。然而，不同森林类型之间的土壤动物多样性和功能性群落组成差异不大，表明其对干扰和林地利用的抵抗力。结构方程模型表明，尽管森林管理对资源丰富度和质量有重大影响，但大多数土壤动物功能组的生物量并未直接受到森林管理或资源丰富度/质量的影响，这可能是因为微生物阻碍了养分向更高营养的传播水平。相反，有害生物量在很大程度上取决于土壤的pH值。大型动植物分解者在高pH条件下蓬勃发展，而中型动植物分解者不仅受益于土壤pH值低，而且还受益于大型动植物分解者的低生物量，这可能是由于大型动植物分解者对生境的改造所致。