Soil mesofauna of taiga burozems

摘要

In the burozems of the plains, the composition of the invertebrates and saprophages (the prevailing primary destroyers) differed from that in the mountainous soils only by the absence of millipedes of the Geophilomorpha order. At the same time, the differences in these characteristics between the burozems and soddypodzolic soils of the neighboring coniferous-broad-leaved forests were more significant: in the latter, the composition of the ecological groups of earthworms was more diverse. Among the earthworms, secondary destroyers (detritophages) consuming well-decomposed residues of plants and animals predominated: Aporrectodea caliginosa, A. rosea, and Octolasium lacteum. In the taiga burozems, among the secondary destroyers, very few O. lacteum among the earthworms, and Polyzonium germanicum among the millipede diplopods were found. Primary destroyers that only comminute plant tissues (Dendrobaena octaedra and Dendrodrilus rubidus f. tenuis) were the main representatives in the invertebrate population of these soils. The differences also concerned the group composition and the proportion between the life forms of the earthworms. In the southern taiga burozems, only the litter (Dendrobaena octaedra and Dendrodrilus rubidus f. tenuis) earthworms and species of the upper soil layer (Octolasium lacteum) were present. In the mountainous burozems of the Transcarpathian region, litter inhabitants (Dendrobaena attemsi and Aporrectodea submontana), soil-litter inhabitants (Dendrobaena alpina-Transcarpathian region), and inhabitants of the upper (Helodrilus cernosvitovianus) and middle (Aporrectodea carpathica and A. sturanyi) soil layers (in the Primorskii region, only the soil-litter Eisenia nordenskioldi) were identified. In the soddy-podzolic soils, dwellers of the middle soil layers (Aporrectodea caliginosa, A. rosea, and Lumbricus terrestris) were constantly present along with the species dwelling in the litter and in the upper soil layers (in the litter-Dendrobaena octaedra, Dendrodrilus rubidus f. tenuis, and L. castaneus; in the litter-soil layer-L. rubellus; in the upper soil layer-Octolasium lacteum). The higher diversity of the earthworm life forms in the soddy-podzolic soils points to the stronger development of their humus horizons as compared to those horizons in the burozems of the southern taiga and mountains.