Seasonal Changes in Abundance and Distribution of the Soil Litter Micro-arthropods in a Tropical Forest, with Special Reference to Collembola

Abstract

The population study was made on the basis of comparison of seasonal changes of Collembola in relation with the gradient of edaphic factors which include moisture, temperature, pH, organic carbon, inorganic nitrogen, phosphorus, sodium and potassium contents of a tropical forest, in West Bengal, India. The variations in abundances have significant values during the study period. The higher numbers of insects were collected in December and July. This was in winter and monsoon seasons in the first and second study year respectively, while the lowest numbers were collected in May and June. These were in the summer and early monsoon season, in the first and second study year respectively. During this period soil moisture, temperature, pH, organic carbon, inorganic nitrogen, phosphorus, sodium and potassium content had shown remarkable variations. It is observed from Pearson’s correlation of study and canonical corresponding analysis (CCA) that the population abundance did not show the same results in response to all edaphic factors.

Keywords: Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA), Collembola, Pearson’s correlation study, population abundance, seasonal variation

Cite this Article

Pradip Kumar Dey. Seasonal Changes in Abundance and Distribution of the Soil Litter Micro-arthropods in a Tropical Forest, with Special Reference to Collembola. Research & Reviews: A Journal of Life Sciences. 2018; 8(3): 6–14p