abundance of springtails (hexapoda: collembola) and edaphic parameters from a deciduous dry forest

Abstract

The abundance patterns of leaf litter and soil springtails (Hexapoda: Collembola) from two hydrological watersheds of the Chamela Biological Station (EBCh, UNAM) in Jalisco, Mexico are described and compared based on monthly sampling over one year. This locality, where the dominant vegetation is tropical dry forest, had an atypically high rainfall during the sampling period, with the greatest amount of rain during January. Sampling in both biotopes was random, the areas sampled were of the same size (95 cm(2)), and these were processed in situ using Berlese funnels. In addition, different edaphic characteristics were quantified. The effect of watershed, biotope and seasonality factors on the abundance of Collembola families was analysed. Using Cluster Analysis (CA), the faunistic relationships between the assemblages were explored, and using Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) the relationships between assemblages and the physico-chemical variables of the soil. A total of 24.253 Collembola were obtained, belonging to 13 families. The most abundant were Isotomidae, Entomobryidae, Hypogastruridae and Sminthuridae. The CA showed more similarity between biotopes than between hydrological watersheds, while in the CCA the most important variable to explain the distribution and abundance of the Collembola was humidity.