Joint International Conference on Long-term Experiments ...

The average values of abundances, derived from the four subsamples, showed strong
correlation with the moisture retention of soil (r=0.89) (Figure 4.).
Figure 1: Number of Springtails
(Collembola) along the erosion gradient
Figure 3: Simplified moisture retention at
the erosion levels
Figure 2: Number of Springtails
(Collembola) at the erosion levels
Figure 4: Correlation between water
retention and springtail abundance
Figure 5 shows that most springtails preferred the pH 6-7. Less individuals were found
above pH 7. As far as the Collembola species composition is concerned, we found much
less species on the high eroded area than the reference and low eroded areas (Table 2).
360