Rarity is a more reliable indicator of land-use impacts on soil invertebrate communities than other diversity metrics

The effects of land use on soil invertebrates – an important ecosystem component – are poorly understood. We investigated land-use impacts on a comprehensive range of soil invertebrates across New Zealand, measured using DNA metabarcoding and six biodiversity metrics. Rarity and phylogenetic rarity – direct measures of the number of species or the portion of a phylogeny unique to a site – showed stronger, more consistent responses across taxa to...