Collembola communities along a European transect

Abstract

The impact of changing environmental factors on Collembola communities was studied using a N–S transect formed by four European coniferous forests: Åheden (northern Sweden), Skogaby (southern Sweden), Waldstein (Germany) and Aubure (France). The similarity between Collembola communities gradually decreased with increasing distance suggesting a significant impact of geographical factors on species composition. While the data show a northward decrease of collembolan abundance, no consistent trend in species richness, diversity, and evenness was detected. However, the dominance of Collembola life forms (eu-, hemi-, epedaphic) markedly changed along the transect, with euedaphic species dominating at the southernmost site and epedaphic species dominating at the northernmost site. In addition, the share of detritivorous species increased and that of fungivorous species decreased from south to north. It is concluded that latitudinal changes in environmental conditions have a strong impact on both abundance and functional structure of collembolan communities, but act within a framework set of geographical and historical impacts on the species composition.