02747naa a2200145 a 450000100080000000500110000800800410001910000190006024500760007926000090015552020850016470000150224970000160226477303210228013149252008-09-25       2008    bl uuuu     u00u1 u    #d1 aSCHMELZ, R. M.  aEnchytraeid distribution in different habitat types of Southern Brazil.  c2008  aAbundance and diversity of enchytraeids and other microdrile Oligochaeta were studied in secondary forests, pastures and agroforestry systems in the southern Brazilian Mata Atlântica (in total: 51 sites) between 2003 and 2008. The investigation is part of the German-Brazilian cooperative project SOLOBIOMA (www.solobioma.ufpr.br), which monitors rain forest recovery from degraded areas (mainly pastures) in the Southern Brazilian Mata Atlântica, among other objectives. The taxonomic inventory revealed a species richness (up to 20 species per site) and diversity (up to 6 genera per site) similar to that in temperate regions, even though abundance (1000 - 5000 ind/m2) was consideraby lower than in temperate forest soils where often more than 50000 Ind/m2 are found. Forest sites were species-richest, the bulk belonging to Guaranidrilus spp.; sites under human influence (pastures, urban parkland) had a different species composition, with Fridericia and Hemienchytraeus being dominant. Achaeta species differed widely in their ecological behaviour, some being possibly peregrine, others belonging probably to the old autochthonous forest fauna. The patterns of response of enchytraeids to forest regeneration can be characterized as a partial species turnover and an increase in species number with ongoing succession. It differs form the response observed in megadrile earthworms (see abstract of Römbke, Schmidt and Höfer), and ants (Bihn et al., 2008, Biol. Conserv., in press) established in the same project. Ant genera of younger successional stages were a subset of genera present at older stages and no species turnover was observed, whereas the composition of megadrile species did not differ among sites. These idiosyncrasies show that it is difficult to derive generalized statements regarding forest recovery based on one taxonomic group alone. However, the response patterns of enchytraeids are still far from understood, mainly because little to nothing is known about the distribution and ecological behaviour of the species, most of them new to science.1 aROMBKE, J.1 aCOLLADO, R.  tIn: INTERNATIONAL COLLOQUIUM ON SOIL ZOOLOGY, 15; INTERNATIONAL COLLOQUIUM ON APTERYGOTA, 12., 2008, Curitiba. Biodiversity, conservation and sustainabele management of soil animal: abstracts. Colombo: Embrapa Florestas. Editors: George Gardner Brown; Klaus Dieter Sautter; Renato Marques; Amarildo Pasini. 1 CD-ROM.