Permalink : http://hdl.handle.net/2115/44671

KEYWORDS : soil meso-funa;atlas;Collembola;larch;spruce

Collembola (Hexapoda: Collembola) is one of the most common soil animals in forests. Collembolans play an essential role in soil ecosystems, but their community structure and ecological role in forests are not fully understood because of difficulties with their classification. We have consequently developed an atlas of Collembolans in certain forest stands within the Sapporo Experimental Forest. The community structure of Collembolans varied greatly in each forest stand. The Isotomidae family was predominant in a mature larch stand and in young broad-leaved mixed stands, but in a spruce plantation the dominant family was Onychiuridae. The most abundant genera in the Isotomidae family also varied with the type of forest stand: Folsomia was found in larch and spruce stands, and Desoria and Pteronychella in young broad-leaved mixed stands. We observed 13 species of Collembola in our study sites.