Microarthropod communities in anthropogenic urban soils. 2. Seasonal dynamics of microarthropod abundance in soils at roundabout junctions

Abstract

The seasonal dynamics of microarthropods in anthropogenic soils was studied in the central lawns of roundabout junctions in the city of Vilnius. The microarthropod communities were found to suffer from the impact of automobile exhausts: their abundance was minimum at the curb and increased significantly at a distance of 10 m from it (at the center of a lawn), but it did not reach the values typical of the soil of the control plot. The dynamics of the microarthropod abundance in anthropogenically disturbed and control soils were similar, with the abundance of microarthropods increasing in the autumn-winter period (October–December). The microarthropod communities formed in the anthropogenic soils were unstable, with a high level of dominance of a few species. Oribatids Scutovertex minutus and Tectocepheus velatus, the gamasid mite Rhodacarus coronatus, and the springtail Brachystomella parvula proved to be well adapted to alkaline soils.