Environmental DNA sampling detects between-habitat variation in soil arthropod communities, but is a poor indicator of fine-scale spatial and seasonal variation

•eDNA sampling reveals differences in arthropod communities between forest types.•finer-scale differences not detected using eDNA, due to methodological limitations.•replicate DNA extractions can improve diversity detected and improve reliability.•Amplification biases must be addressed, and taxonomic databases need to be expanded.•Advancements needed but eDNA could improve invertebrate-based indicators.