Impact of earthworms on the diversity of microarthropods in a vertisol (Martinique)

Gladys Loranger (1) , Jean-François Ponge (2) , Patrick Lavelle (3)

1 DYNECAR EA 926 - Dynamique des écosystèmes Caraïbe et biologie des espèces associées
2 CESCO - Centre d'Ecologie et des Sciences de la COnservation
3 LEST - Laboratoire d'Ecologie des Sols Tropicaux

In a study of a 15-year-old pasture in Martinique (French West Indies), abundance and organization of microarthropod communities were correlated with the spatial distribution of the earthworm Polypheretima elongata (Megascolecidae). In patches of high earthworm density (133 individuals m-2), microarthropod density was significantly higher (80 000 individuals m-2) than in patches with few earthworms (31 worms m-2 and 49 000 microarthropods m-2). The diversity of microarthropod communities followed a similar pattern, the Shannon index for Collembola communities being, respectively, 3.12 and 1.82 in and outside earthworm patches. These results suggest that mesofauna abundance and diversity might be at least partly determined by the activity of larger invertebrates, as a result of the dramatic effects that the latter group exerts upon soil structure, pore distribution and food resources.

Mots clés: microarthropods; earthworms; spatial distribution; Collembola; biodiversity

Domaines: Science des sols

Gladys Loranger, Jean-François Ponge, Patrick Lavelle. Impact of earthworms on the diversity of microarthropods in a vertisol (Martinique). Biology and Fertility of Soils, 1998, 27 (1), pp.21-26. ⟨10.1007/s003740050394⟩. ⟨hal-00505427⟩