Land Use and Soil Health: Response, Assessment, and Conservation of Arthropod Communities

Dear Colleagues,

Soil represents an invisible, but incredibly important, component of ecosystems. It is now a universally recognized fact that there is a close interconnection between the food web of subaerial environments and the detritus web leading to the soil and that even the smallest change in land use is reflected in alterations in soil community structure. These modifications, in turn, affect the ecosystem that depends on the soil.

Biodiversity—particularly soil- and litter-associated biota—plays a crucial role in ensuring key ecosystem services, such as nutrient cycling, soil formation, organic matter decomposition, and the regulation of pest populations. Arthropods, as the predominant components of zoocenoses that occupy different levels of food webs, represent excellent indicators of the health of terrestrial environments and of the impact on biodiversity due to changes in land use. This Special Issue aims to highlight the impact on arthropod biodiversity of different forms of land management and soil use. In particular, the following aspects will be emphasized:

- Responses of arthropod populations to environmental and soil changes

- Methods for assessing arthropod community responses

- Management measures for conserving arthropod diversity.

Dr. Loris Galli
Dr. Matteo Zinni
Guest Editors

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