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Diversity of soil fauna in the canopy and forest floor of a Venezuelan cloud forest

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

Maurizio G. Paoletti ,
R. A. J. Taylor ,
Benjamin R. Stinner ,
Deborah H. Stinner  and
David H. Benzing
Maurizio G. Paoletti
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
R. A. J. Taylor*
Affiliation:
Department of Entomology, The Ohio State University, Woosler, Ohio, USA
Benjamin R. Stinner
Affiliation:
Department of Entomology, The Ohio State University, Woosler, Ohio, USA
Deborah H. Stinner
Affiliation:
Department of Entomology, The Ohio State University, Woosler, Ohio, USA
David H. Benzing
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, Oberlin College, Oberlin, USA
*
1Department of Entomology, Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, The Ohio Slate University, Wooster, OH 44691, USA
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Abstract

Arboreal and terresterial soil and lilter were sampled for macro-and microinvertebrates at two locations in a Venezuelan cloud forest. Fauna were most abundant in forest floor soil and associated litter. However, media suspended in the canopy and particularly those trapped in bromeliad shoots were most densely populated, while the diversities of the arboreal and terrestrial soil fauna were indistinguishable. Rates of leaf litter decomposition in the arboreal and terrestrial soils were similar, but the arboreal soils contained higher concentrations of mineral nutrients and carbon. Implications of these findings for the definition of soil in humid tropical forests, and related differences between temperate and tropical forests are discussed. The similarities in diversity and differences in species composition between arboreal and terrestrial soil fauna raise questions concerning the evolution of tropical soil fauna, as well as the estimate of global biotic diversity.

Keywords

cloud forestdensitydiversityepiphytic bromeliadssoil faunaVenezeula
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 7 , Issue 3 , August 1991 , pp. 373 - 383
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

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