Abstract
Tropical inselbergs are isolated rock outcrops with a special type of vegetation surrounded by rain forest. They are exposed to a harsh climate (alternation of heavy rain and severe drought) and provide few nutrients for plant growth. The aim of our study was to investigate a possible correlation between primary plant succession, size and diversity of soil arthropods. The study site was the Nouragues inselberg, in French Guiana (South America). Nine soil samples (three samples in each vegetation type) were taken for the study of soil arthropod communities and their food habits in three habitat types: Pitcairnia geyskesi (Bromeliaceae), Clusia minor (Clusiaceae) and Myrcia saxatilis (Myrtaceae), which represent three stages in a primary plant succession on this inselberg. Soil arthropods were classified into morphospecies under the dissecting microscope and their food habits were characterized by examining their gut contents under the light microscope. A variation in food habits was observed, cyanobacteria being found in arthropod guts only during the Pitcairnia stage, and were replaced by plant material at the Myrcia stage. Carnivory was prominent in oribatid mites, contrary to temperate records. All our samples contained large numbers of microarthropods, principally mites and collembolans. At the Myrcia stage arthropod density was significantly higher than at the two other stages. Macroinvertebrates are present only at late and intermediate successional stages. The number of macropredators increased by a factor of 10 in species richness and 100 in abundance along the succession. These results suggest that abundance and diversity of soil arthropods increased throughout the plant succession and show the importance of organic matter as a factor which can explain the observed phenomenon.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Behan-Pelletier VM, Hill SB (1983) Feeding habits of sixteen species of Oribatei (Acari) from an acid peat bog, Glenamoy, Ireland. Rev Ecol Biol Sol 20:221–267
Bernier N, Ponge JF (1994) Humus form dynamics during the sylvogenetic cycle in a mountain spruce forest. Soil Biol Biochem 26:183–220
Bornhart W (1900) Zur Oberflächengestaltung und Geologie Deutsch-Ostafrikas. Berlin
Brown VK, Southwood TRE (1983) Trophic diversity, niche breadth, and generation times of exopterygote insects in a secondary succession. Oecologia 56:220–225
Choubert B (1974) Les Précambriens des Guyanes. Mem Bur Rech Geol Min 81:1–212
Christensen NL (1977) Changes in structure, pattern, and diversity associated with climax forest maturation in piedmont, North Carolina. Am Midl Nat 97:176–188
Connell JH, Slatyer RO (1977) Mechanism of succession in natural communities and their role in community stability and organisation. Am Nat 111:1119–1144
Daniel RP, Engelmann MD (1961) Fungi as source of food for soil mites. Am J Bot 48:538
Drury WH, Nisbet ICT (1973) Succession. J Arnold Arbor 54:331–368
Ebenman B, Person L (1988) Size-structured populations. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York
Edwards CA, Fletcher KE (1971) A comparison of extraction methods for terrestrial arthropods. In: Phillipson J (ed) Methods of study in quantitative soil ecology: population, production and energy flow. Blackwell, Oxford, pp 150–185
Garay I, Hafidi N (1990) Study of a mixed forest litter of hornbean (Carpinus betulus L.) and oak (Quercus sessiliflora Smith). III. Organization of the edaphic macro-arthropod community as a function of litter quantity. Acta Oecol 11:43–60
Goralczyk K (1998) Nematodes in a coastal dune succession: indicators of soil properties? Appl Soil Ecol 9:465–469
Goralczyk K, Verhoeven R (1999) Bodengenese als Standortfaktor für Mikrofauna-Ciliaten und Nematoden in Dünenböden. In: Koehler H, Mathes K, Breckling B (eds) Bodenökologie interdisziplinär. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 105–118
Greenacre MJ (1984) Theory and applications of correspondence analysis. Academic Press, London
Grimaldi M, Riéra B (2001) Geography and climate. In: Bongers F, Charles-Dominique P, Forget PM, Théry M (eds) Nouragues: dynamics and plant–animal interactions in a neotropical rainforest. Kluwer, Dordrecht, pp 9–18
Hooper DU, Bignell DE, Brown VK, Brussaard L, Dangerfield JM, Wall DH, Wardle DA, Coleman DC, Giller KE, Lavelle P, Van Der Putten WH, De Ruiter PC, Rusek J, Silver WL, Tiedje JM, Wolters V (2000) Interactions between aboveground and belowground biodiversity in terrestrial ecosystems: patterns, mechanisms, and feedbacks. BioScience 50:1049–1061
Howard LF, Lee TD (2003) Temporal patterns of vascular plant diversity in southeastern New Hampshire forests. For Ecol Manage 185:5–20
Hurault J (1963) Recherches sur les inselbergs granitiques nus en Guyane française. Rev Geomorphol Dyn 4:49–61
Hurault J (1967) L’érosion régressive dans les régions tropicales humides et la genèse des inselbergs granitiques. IGN, Paris
Joosse ENG, Testerink (1977) The role of food in the population dynamics of Orchesella cincta (Linné) (Collembola). Oecologia 29:189–204
Legendre P, Legendre L (1998) Numerical ecology, 2nd English edn. Elsevier, Amsterdam
Loranger G, Ponge JF, Blanchart E, Lavelle P (1998) Impact of earthworms on the diversity of microarthropods in a vertisol (Martinique). Biol Fertil Soils 27:21–26
Luxton M (1979) Food and energy processing by oribatid mites. Rev Ecol Biol Sol 16:103–111
Myster RW, Pickett STA (1992) Dynamics of associations between plants in ten old fields during 31 years of succession. J Ecol 80:291–303
Odum (1969) The strategy of ecosystem development. Science 164:262–270
Oliver I, Beattie AJ (1996) Designing a cost-effective invertebrate survey: a test of methods for rapid assessment of biodiversity. Ecol Appl 6:594–607
Paquin P, Coderre D (1997) Comparison of macro-arthropod communities associated with three succession stages of the Canadian boreal forest. Oecologia 112:104–111
Peters RH (1983) The ecological implications of body size. Cambridge University Press, London
Ponge JF (1991) Food resources and diets of soil animals in a small area of Scots pine litter. Geoderma 49:33–62
Ponge JF, Arpin P, Sondag F, Delecour F (1997) Soil fauna and site assessment in beech stands of the Belgian Ardennes. Can J For Res 27:2053–2064
Rusek J (1978) Pedozootische Sukzessionen während der Entwicklung von Ökosystemen. Pedobiologia 18:426–433
Sarthou C (1992) Dynamique de la végétation pionnière sur un inselberg en Guyane Française. Doctorate thesis. Paris
Sarthou C, Grimaldi C (1992) Mécanismes de colonisation par la végétation d’un inselberg granitique en Guyane Française. Rev Ecol 47:329–349
Sarthou C, Thérézien Y, Couté A (1995) Cyanophycées de l’inselberg des Nouragues (Guyane Française). Nova Hedwigia Z Kryptogamenkd 61:85–109
Southwood TRE, Brown VK, Reader PM (1979) The relationships of plant and insect diversities in succession. Biol J Linn Soc 12:327–348
Steffan-Dewenter I, Tscharntke T (1997) Early succession of butterfly and plant communities on set-aside fields. Oecologia 109:294–302
Vaçulik A, Kounda-Kiki C, Sarthou C, Ponge JF (2004) Soil invertebrate activity in biological crusts on tropical inselbergs. Eur J Soil Sci 55 (in press)
Verhoeven R (2002) Ciliates in coastal dune soils of different stages of development. Eur J Soil Biol 38:187–191
Acknowledgements
We wish to thank the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique for financial support and commodities, in particular P. Charles-Dominique and his staff at the Nouragues Field Station.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kounda-Kiki, C., Vaçulik, A., Ponge, J.F. et al. Soil arthropods in a developmental succession on the Nouragues inselberg (French Guiana). Biol Fertil Soils 40, 119–127 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-004-0749-z
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-004-0749-z