Succession in Communities of Soil Animals During Lfaf Litter Decomposition in Cyclobalanopsis glauca Forest

Changes in soil animal communities during leaf litter decomposition were studied with litter bag method over a two year period (from May 1993 to April 1995) in Cyclobalanopsis glauca forest.The community organization was compared among different stages of the leaf litter decomposition.For the soil animals,the successional changes in the community structure were expressed by the diversity index,succession index and similarity index.Soil animals showed changes in the community throughout the period. In the study,the most dominant taxa in density was Acarina,and the second was Collembola,both accounting for 92.7% of total individuals.Diptera,Hymenoptera,Araneae,Homoptera,Pauropoda,Protura and Lepidoptera took less place.The colonization of the taxa more correlating with the mass loss of the leaf litter were Araneae,Collembola,Diptera,Oribatida and Acarina in order.Colembola,Diptera,Homopter,Araneae and Lepidoptera were earlier colonizers and colonized for 6 to 8 months during the 2 year decomposition period,while Acarina and Oribatida occurred in the whole decomposition and colonized for 8 to 12 months. The succession of the communities was related to the changes in food resource during decomposition.Araneae,Collembola and Diptera showed significant positive correlation with the mass loss,Acarina and Oribatida normal positive correlation,Protura and Pauropoda negative correlation,and Homoptera,Lepidoptera and Hymenoptera litter correlation. The feeding of the animals were compared in relation to the changes of the food resource.