{"type": "FeatureCollection", "features": [{"id": "10.5061/dryad.f542t16", "type": "Feature", "geometry": null, "properties": {"updated": "2026-05-30T16:22:27Z", "type": "Dataset", "title": "Data from: Grazing and resource availability control soil nematode body size and abundance-mass relationship in semi-arid grassland", "description": "unspecified1. Body size is a central functional trait in ecological communities.  Despite recognition of the importance of above-belowground interactions,  effects of aboveground herbivores on size and abundance-size relationships  in soil fauna are almost uncharted. Depending on climate and soil  properties, herbivores may increase basal resources of soil food webs, or  reduce pore space, mechanisms expected to have contrasting effects on soil  animal body size. 2. We investigated how body size and shape of soil  nematodes responded to mammalian grazers in three semi-arid grassland  sites, along a gradient of soil texture and organic matter (OM) in a  long-term herbivore removal study. We analysed nematode mass, length,  diameter, body size distribution, and biomass distribution. We formulated  two mechanistic hypotheses to assess whether resource availability or pore  space was the dominant abiotic control and modulated the effects of  grazing. 3. In ungrazed soils, average and maximum nematode size, as well  as abundance and biomass of large nematodes, were greater in the high-OM  than in the low-OM soil, and intermediate in the medium-OM soil. Grazing  promoted larger sizes in the low-OM soil, where it had been shown to  increase organic matter and microbial biomass, and led to more homogeneous  average size and body size distribution across sites. The results support  the hypothesis that nematode size was controlled by basal resource  availability rather than by pore space. However, body shape might have  been constrained by small pores in the fine-texture, high-OM soil, where  nematodes were more elongated. 4. Grazing may facilitate larger sizes in  soil nematode communities by boosting basal resources where these are  limiting, with important implications for estimations of nematode biomass  and contribution to carbon and nutrient cycling. These findings contribute  to the insofar-limited mechanistic understanding of how herbivores can  shape functional traits of soil fauna, and demonstrate that animals at one  trophic level may control patterns in body size and abundance-size  relationships in other trophic levels without a direct predator-prey or  competitive linkage between them.", "keywords": ["2. Zero hunger", "Individual size distribution", "Soil texture", "Aboveground-belowground interactions", "15. Life on land", "Mammalian herbivores", "organic matter", "Soil fauna"], "contacts": [{"organization": "Andriuzzi, Walter S., Wall, Diana H.,", "roles": ["creator"]}]}, "links": [{"href": "https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.f542t16"}, {"rel": "self", "type": "application/geo+json", "title": "10.5061/dryad.f542t16", "name": "item", "description": "10.5061/dryad.f542t16", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/10.5061/dryad.f542t16"}, {"rel": "collection", "type": "application/json", "title": "Collection", "name": "collection", "description": "Collection", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main"}], "time": {"date": "2019-05-17T00:00:00Z"}}], "links": [{"rel": "self", "type": "application/geo+json", "title": "This document as GeoJSON", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items?keywords=Mammalian+herbivores&f=json", "hreflang": "en-US"}, {"rel": "alternate", "type": "text/html", "title": "This document as HTML", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items?keywords=Mammalian+herbivores&f=html", "hreflang": "en-US"}, {"rel": "collection", "type": "application/json", "title": "Collection URL", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main", "hreflang": "en-US"}, {"type": "application/geo+json", "rel": "first", "title": "items (first)", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items?keywords=Mammalian+herbivores&", "hreflang": "en-US"}, {"rel": "last", "type": "application/geo+json", "title": "items (last)", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items?keywords=Mammalian+herbivores&offset=1", "hreflang": "en-US"}], "numberMatched": 1, "numberReturned": 1, "distributedFeatures": [], "timeStamp": "2026-05-31T02:18:40.457110Z"}