No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

The study compared communities of soil Collembola along the inversed microclimatic gradient of the collapse doline of the Silická ľadnica Ice Cave (Slovakia) in spring and autumn of 2005. Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA and the MannWhitney test revealed significant differences in abundance between sites and both seasons. Significantly higher abundance means and species richness were observed at most sites during the spring compared with the autumn. NMS ordination documented a clear delimitation of communities with remarkably different soil microclimates. The community pattern of the coldest section of the gradient, with low species richness and high mean abundance, was analogous to communities living in the harsh alpine and polar soils. The collapse doline with inversed microclimate hosted a high number of species (72) and a broad variety of montane forms (13), thus documenting that these karst landforms enhance local diversity of edaphic Collembola and serve as local refugia of specialized cold-tolerant species. The cold tolerance of the four abundant species at the doline cold sites, namely Ceratophysella sigillata, Tetrodontophora bielanensis, Protaphorura armata and Desoria tigrina, was tested in the laboratory using one-hour exposition survival tests. Within a temperature range from -2.4 to -7.8 • C, T. bielanensis was the most cold-sensitive species, with a lethal dose LD50 of -4.4 • C, while D. tigrina was the most cold-resistant, showing LD50 of -5.8 • C.

In spring 2005 we investigated the collembolan communities in the 50-m-deep collapse doline of the perennial ice cave Silická ľadnica in the Slovak Karst (Slovakia). Samples were taken at seven sites along a 117.5-m-long transect on the slope from the ice-bearing cave mouth at the bottom of the doline up to the terrain surface at 500 m above sea level (a.s.l.). The temperature above the soil surface (+0.6 to +13.6• C) positively correlated with altitude. Species numbers (ranging from 20-32) and diversity indices were highest at sites in the middle of the slope with rendzina and well developed organic profiles. A Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA revealed significant differences in abundance between the sites. Mean abundance near the permafrost zone at the bottom of the doline was significantly higher than at the sites further upslope. The abundances of some eurytopic and forest species were significantly correlated with soil temperature. Cluster analysis and the IndVal method indicated differences in the structure of Collembolan communities along the transect. The community at the coldest site had the lowest species richness and the highest mean abundance of individuals. A total of ten montane species were recorded, with a lower number near the permafrost zone compared to the micro-climatically more favourable middle section of the gradient.

No abstract

No abstract