Data/hora: 07/06/2024 02:58:49

Biblioteca(s): | Embrapa Florestas.
Data corrente: | 03/10/2008
Data da última atualização: | 03/10/2008
Autoria: | GONGALSKY, K. B.
Título: | Detecting boundaries of soil animal communities at a topographic boundary.
Ano de publicação: | 2008
Fonte/Imprenta: | In: 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.
Idioma: | Inglês

Conteúdo:

Relationships between above- and belowground communities determine to a great extend the
functioning of ecosystems. To unravel these relationships, it is vital to know whether the boundaries
of plant and animal communities coincide. The boundaries occur when open and forested
ecosystems adjust. Do such boundaries occur at the boundary between two forested
ecosystems? The borders between soil animal communities at the border of plant communities
should occur on the topographic border (for example, slope and foot of a hill).
The relationship between plant and soil animal communities was studied by geostatistical analysis
in a piedmont forest close to Novorossiysk (Southern Russia). The analysis did not reveal
coincidence between the boundaries of plant and soil animal communities on the bend of the
hill. Vegetation on the slope of a hill was an oak-ash-hornbeam forest, while the vegetation on
the foot of the hill was a maple-ash-hornbeam forest. Two plots were studied each including
both slope and foot habitats. On every plot samples collected formed a grid of 10x5 units with a
5 m distance between them. Soil macroinvertebrates were hand-sorted from the samples, and
several soil parameters (soil, pebble, and litter mass, soil moisture) were measured.
Soil animal communities of the plots were dominated by woodlice, diplopods, and insect larvae
reaching an abundance of 680-990 individuals m-2 throughout the plots. Morphospecies richness
per sample and overall animal abundance in the bend were the highest in both plots, whilst
these parameters on the slope were the lowest. Variograms and maps of spatial distribution
indicated that the boundary between soil animal communities was situated further up on the
slope than the vegetation boundary, and it was not parallel to the bend of the hill. The size of
animal communities? aggregations was smaller than the size of plots sampled, what probably
explained the lack of coincidence between the boundaries. There was a significant correlation
between distribution of litter mass and parameters of soil animal communities, which was
modulated by depth of soil layer and soil moisture. Soil parameters were more important for
explaining boundaries between soil animal communities than plant communities in the forest
considered.

Categoria do assunto: | --
Registro original: | Embrapa Florestas (CNPF)
Exemplares: | CNPF - (43790-1) - UPE - PL - -- - CD0305 -  -  - DIS