Abstract

RUIZ-COBO, Darío Hernán; FEIJOO, Alexander  and  RODRIGUEZ, Carlos. Soil macro-invertebrate communities in different land use systems in the Otún River Valley, Colombia. Acta Zool. Mex [online]. 2010, vol.26, n.spe2, pp.165-178. ISSN 2448-8445.

In the Andean Mountains some agroecosystems are adequate environments for biodiversity conservation or for the readaptation, recolonization and natural recovery of species. To evaluate this phenomenon, soil macroinvertebrate communities were studied in different land uses of the Otún watershed in Colombia. Nineteen orders were found, with richness ranging from 12 to 16 groups per land use system; the forest had the highest while the plantations had the lowest diversity. Earthworms were the dominant group in terms of abundance (620 individuals m^-2) and biomass (134.1 g.f.w. m^-2). Highest diversity, frequency and homogeneity of distribution of the soil macrofauna were observed in the forest, together with a high percentage dominance and mixed dominance for certain epigeic groups such as millipedes, isopods and arachnids, considered indicators of more preserved ecosystems. The factorial correspondence analysis for macroinvertebrate abundance significantly separated (p < 0.01) the systems according to land use gradient and intervention level, with the first two components explaining 51% of the total variability.

Keywords : Soil macrofauna; land use; factorial correspondence analysis; combined dominance.

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