Soil biota community composition as affected by Cryptostegia madagascariensis invasion in a tropical Cambisol from North-eastern Brazil

We aimed to analyse the effects of Cryptostegia madagascariensis’ invasion on soil biota community composition from a tropical Fluvisol at the Brazilian Northeast. We collected soil organisms from two dissimilar environments (e.g., invaded and non-invaded) using Provid-type traps into transects. There was a positive correlation between the abundance of Araneae, Blattodea, Homoptera and, Pseudoscorpiones with the invaded environment. On the other hand, the frequency of occurrence of Hymenoptera was significantly higher in the invaded environment compared to the non-invaded one. The biological invasion process promoted by C. madagascariensis reduces soil biota diversity, and the frequency of occurrence of important functional groups, such as predators (e.g., Araneae, Dermaptera, and Scorpiones), and litter transformers (e.g., Coleoptera). This creates a negative plant-soil feedback that promote the functional redundancy process by soil organisms and the biological invasion process by the invader into the Caatinga ecoregion.