Oribatid mites, also called beetle or moss mites, include more than 10,000 named species representing 172 families worldwide. This book provides an identification key to the 96 families, 250 genera and the c.580 described species for Canada and Alaska, a fauna that encompasses more than 50% of northern Hemisphere genera. It includes known data on the ecology of species, their distribution in the Holarctic region, and relevant literature.
Oribatid mites are model arthropods in studies on development, morphology, ecology, physiology, and biomechanics. Growing recognition of the importance of soil systems for agriculture, reclamation, carbon storage and climate mitigation has spurred recent interest in the vast soil biodiversity that provide these ecosystem services. Yet the major barrier to exploring and understanding soil biodiversity is lack of comprehensive and functional taxonomic and ecological treatments of key biotic groups; groups such as the oribatid mites.
Oribatid Mites is unparalleled in the comprehensive nature of the information provided. The authors, two leading global experts for this group, hope that readers will come to share their understanding of oribatid mites as part of the charismatic microfauna, the imagery in this book conveying their unique beauty.
About the Author: Dr. Valerie Behan-Pelletier is an Honorary Research Associate (an Emeritus position) with the Research Branch of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the federal department responsible for maintaining the national collections of insects, arachnids, nematodes, fungi and vascular plants. As a global specialist in the taxonomy and ecology of Oribatida for over 45 years, she has published a number of large monographs on oribatid mites for North America and has contributed to multi-chapter works on biodiversity, soil ecology, and ecological assessments. She is a Section Editor of the 2012 Oxford University Press publication Soil Ecology and Ecosystem Services, is a coeditor of the Global Soil Biodiversity Atlas (2016) and is coauthor of a chapter on Aquatic Oribatida in Thorp and Covich's (2016) Freshwater Invertebrates (4th ed.), Vol. II: Keys to Nearctic Fauna, Elsevier. She has published over 150 research papers. She is a past Scientific Editor of Memoirs of the Entomological Society of Canada, former Secretary of the International Congress of Acarology, and Fellow of the Entomological Society of Canada.
Dr. Zoë Lindo is Full Professor, Department of Biology, Western University, London, Ontario. They are an expert in forest soil biodiversity and ecosystem function. Zoë has worked extensively in Canadian forests including the mixed-wood boreal of Alberta, the subarctic taiga of Quebec, the coastal temperate rainforest of British Columbia, and the black spruce / peatlands of Ontario. As a specialist in the ecology of soil invertebrates and the taxonomy and ecology of Oribatida for 25 years, their research focusses on ecosystems that are currently undergoing dramatic changes in biodiversity due to habitat loss and fragmentation associated with land use change, pollution, overexploitation, and climate change. They have published over 75 research papers and was recently a lead author for the UN-FAO Report on the State of Knowledge of Soil Biodiversity: Status, Challenges and Potentialities (Dec. 2020). They are a member of the Global Soil Biodiversity Initiative, the Biological Survey of Canada and is Editor-in-Chief of Pedobiologia-Journal of Soil Ecology.
