Conversion of rainforests into rubber and oil palm plantations alters energy channels in the soil food web as shown by different composition of biomarker FAs in soil fauna communities in different land‐use systems. Our results show a general increase in the plant energy channel and strong alterations in the bacterial energy channel in oil palm plantations, and a reduction of the AMF‐root‐based energy channel in rubber plantations as compared to rainforest. Despite the general shifts in the use of basal food resources, our results also showed that different trophic groups and size classes of soil fauna contain different specific biomarker FAs across land‐use systems and thus are linked to different basal resources. In most of the cases, the group identity had a larger effect on the FAs composition than land‐use change and thus this effect will be discussed in the first place.

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