6th INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR ON APTERYGOTA, SIENA, ITALY, 2002Effects of land-use on Collembola diversity patterns in a Mediterranean landscape
Introduction
In terrestrial environments, the status of biodiversity at local or regional level is influenced by driving forces such as agriculture, forestry and urbanisation. These forces cause changes in land-use (e.g., fragmentation, intensification, afforestation, reforestation), which directly affect diversity patterns of living organisms. To develop a set of effective tools, able to monitor these changes, is one of the priorities within the EU, as stated in the Convention of Biological Diversity. The study presented here is integrated in the EU funded project BIOASSESS, the goal of which is to develop a set of “biodiversity assessment tools” to monitor changes in biodiversity patterns due to policy-derived changes in soil use. Among others (plants, lichens, soil macrofauna, carabids, butterflies and birds), Collembola were chosen as a study group due to their acknowledged representativity in the soil system in terms of biodiversity and due to their ability to respond to a wide range of disturbance factors.
Collembola respond to changes in soil chemistry (Hågvar and Abrahamsen, 1984), namely soil pH (Vilkamaa and Huhta, 1986; Van Straalen and Verhoef, 1997; Ponge, 2000; Loranger et al., 2001), and changes in microclimatic and microhabitat conditions like moisture (Poinsot-Balaguer, 1975; Verhoef and Van Selm, 1983; Pflug and Wolters, 2001), amount and quality of litter (Ponge et al., 1993; Cortet and Poinsot-Balaguer, 1998; Hasegawa, 2002) and humus type (Ponge and Prat, 1982; Chagnon et al., 2000). Also, different vegetation communities host different species assemblages of Collembola (Pozo et al., 1986; Setälä et al., 1995; Gama et al., 1997; Benito and Sanchez, 2000); this is particularly true when comparing open and closed habitats (Bonnet et al., 1976, Bonnet et al., 1977; Ponge, 1980, Ponge, 1993).
Collembola communities also react to different forest and agricultural activities. Reforestation with exotic tree species is known to cause a decrease in diversity (Bonnet et al., 1977; Gama et al., 1994; Deharveng, 1996; Pinto et al., 1997; Sousa et al., 1997; Barrocas et al., 1998; Sousa et al., 2000) and logging may cause a disruption on the biocenotic equilibrium of Collembola communities over several years (Bengtsson et al., 1997), depending on the regime adopted. Crop management practices can also lead to changes in species assemblages and diversity (Nakamura, 1988; Dekkers et al., 1994; Filser et al., 1995; Reddy et al., 1996; Loranger et al., 1999; Frampton, 2000; Alvarez et al., 2001; Gardi et al., 2002). Moreover, landscape configuration (e.g., heterogeneity, fragmentation) and the type of use (e.g., pasture, farm forest) also regulates Collembola community composition (Filser et al., 1996; Lauga-Reyrel and Deconchat, 1999; Alvarez et al., 2000; Dombos, 2001).
However, and despite the information available, studies evaluating the use of Collembola as bioindicators of changes in soil intensification at landscape level are lacking. The results presented here correspond to the data obtained for Collembola on the Portuguese sites of the BIOASSESS project. Collembola diversity patterns were evaluated along a gradient of land-use intensification in a typical Mediterranean landscape dominated by Quercus suber. The gradient ranged from areas with cork-oak forest with minimum disturbance, to agricultural plots with monoculture crops, passing through areas with managed parklands and pastures. The main goal was to detect changes in biodiversity patterns and community composition along this land-use gradient and to evaluate the use of Collembola as tools to depict changes at landscape level.
Section snippets
Site description
The study was located in the consolidated alluvial plain of the Tagus river (left bank), 20 km east of Lisbon, Portugal (ca 4250°N 5150°E). The altitude ranges from 8 to 45 m. The climate of the area is typically Mediterranean: about 80% of relative humidity, no frost; annual rainfall averages 574 mm (concentrated in November–February) while mean temperature is 16.3 °C (5.9 and 28.8 °C as extreme mean temperatures in January and July, respectively) (data for Montijo air base, 5 km away).
The area was
Physical and chemical characterisation and habitat diversity
Physical and chemical characterisation of the different sites revealed several significant differences in some of the parameters measured (Table 1). These occurred more at the mineral horizon, where most of the differences were found between the woodland areas (LUU1–LUU5) and the agricultural site (LUU6). The exception was observed for the water content, with LUU2 presenting the lowest value. This low water content was also observed in the organic horizon, and could have been caused by the late
Changes in Collembola community composition
The Collembola community in the study area was strongly dominated by Isotomidae (with more than 50% of the specimens identified and 35% of species collected), and Poduromorpha (with 40% of species richness). A similar pattern is reported by Lauga-Reyrel and Deconchat (1999) for oak coppice forests in southern France. Dominant Isotomid species presented a high reproductive rate, confirmed by the large number of juveniles found. This feature allowed some of them (e.g., C. thermophilus, C.
Acknowledgements
This study was sponsored by the EU, integrated in the BIOASSESS project (Contract No.: EVK4 — 1999-00280). The authors would like to thank the Administration of Companhia das Lezírias (in the person of Eng° Sérvulo Correia) and the Força Aérea Portuguesa – Campo de Tiro de Alcochete (in the person of Cmte Norte Jacinto) for allowing the realisation of the field work.
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