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# Bioindication and Collembola

Jean-François Ponge

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Jean-François Ponge. Bioindication and Collembola. 2014. hal-01224906

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Bioindication and Collembola

JF PONGE

Soil springtails are abundant in a variety of environments, from forests to agricultural crops and bogs, from the deep soil to the crown of trees and from seashore to higher mountains (Ponge, 1993; Sadaka and Ponge, 2003; Mouloud et al., 2007). If most species prefer moist environments, due to their tegumentary respiration, some species are adapted to desert and other psammophilic environments, where they live in small interstices between sand grains (Greenslade, 1981; Thibaud, 2008), and many collembolan species support saline stress quite easily (Witteveen et al., 1987; Owojori et al., 2009). However, this apparent ubiquity masks profound differences in the ecological requirements of species. As a consequence, springtail communities exhibit a variable composition. The most cited examples are those relative to soil acidity. It has been shown that, beside a basic species pool, communities of acidic (ph < 5) and less acidic to neutral or alkaline environments differ markedly at the species level (Hågvar and Abrahamsen, 1984; Ponge, 1993; Loranger et al., 2001). Although the direct sensitivity of Collembola to pH has been experimentally demonstrated (Salmon et al., 2002), other studies showed that the attractiveness of some springtails to earthworms and the refuges they find from predation in networks of earthworm galleries may explain why some species are absent from acidic soils deprived of burrowing animals (Salmon, 2001; Salmon et al., 2005). Agricultural soils differ also from forest environments, probably due to a complex and still unexplained factor embracing both climate and soil conditions (Ponge et al., 2003; Auclerc et al., 2009). It has been shown that the first stadium, sometimes called the larval stage, may exhibit specific requirements, not allowing some species to tolerate the contrasted climate of open environments (Betsch and Vannier, 1977). In sub-tropical and Mediterranean areas Collembola may totally disappear during drier months (Bandyopadhyaya et al., 2002), passing the unfavourable season in the form of diapausing eggs or other forms of resistance (Poinsot-Balaguer, 1984). For all these reasons, springtail communities have been shown to be good indicators of environmental health (Van Straalen, 1997), although it can occur that the influence of site is higher than that of vegetational types, as this has been shown to occur in Egypt (Alassiuty et al., 1993), pointing to the need for a comprehensive exploration of the regional pool before reaching conclusions based on species composition. The existence of communities locally depauperated in species (compared to the regional pool) may indicate abrupt changes in land use (Ponge et al., 2006) or pollution events (Gillet and Ponge, 2003) with which communities were unable to cope. Similarly, soil springtail communities are sensitive to pesticides and other chemicals in use in agriculture, and their paucity in species may indicate negative impacts on non-target organisms (Wiktelius et al., 1999; Ponge et al., 2002).

References

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Auclerc, A., Ponge, J.F., Barot, S., Dubs, F., 2009. Experimental assessment of habitat preference and dispersal ability of soil springtails. *Soil Biology and Biochemistry* 41, 1596-1604.

Bandyopadhyaya, I., Choudhuri, D.K., Ponge, J.F., 2002. Effects of some physical factors and agricultural practices on Collembola in a multiple cropping programme in West Bengal (India). *European Journal of Soil Biology* 38, 111-117.

Betsch, J.M., Vannier, G., 1977. Caractérisation de deux phases juvéniles d'Allacma fusca (Collembola, Symphypleona) par leur morphologie et leur écophysiologie. Zeitschrift für Zoologische Systematik und Evolutionsforschung 15: 124-141.

Gillet, S., Ponge, J.F., 2003. Changes in species assemblages and diets of Collembola along a gradient of metal pollution. *Applied Soil Ecology* 22: 127-138.
Greenslade, P., 1981. Survival of Collembola in arid environments: observations in South-Australia and the Sudan. *Journal of Arid Environments* 4: 219-228.

Hågvar, S., Abrahamsen, G., 1984. Collembola in Norwegian coniferous forest soils. III. Relations to soil chemistry. *Pedobiologia* 27: 331-339.

Loranger, G., Bandyopadhyaya, I., Razaka, B., Ponge, J.F., 2001. Does soils acidity explain altitudinal sequences in collembolan communities? *Soil Biology and Biochemistry* 33: 381-393.

Mouloud, S.A., Lek-Ang, S., Deharveng, L., 2007. Fine scale changes in biodiversity in a soil-water ecotone: Collembola in two peat-bogs of Kabylia (Algeria). *Vie et Milieu* 57, 149-157.

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Poinsot-Balaguer, N., 1984. Comportement des microarthropodes du sol en climat méditerranéen français. *Bulletin de la Société Botanique de France* 131: 307-318.

Ponge, J.F., 1993. Biocenoses of Collembola in atlantic temperate grass-woodland ecosystems. *Pedobiologia* 37: 223-244.

Ponge, J.F., Bandyopadhyaya, I., Marchetti, V., 2002. Interaction between humus form and herbicide toxicity to Collembola (Hexapoda). *Applied Soil Ecology* 20: 239-253.

Ponge, J.F., Dubs, F., Gillet, S., Sousa, J.P., Lavelle, P., 2006. Decreased biodiversity in soil springtail communities: the importance of dispersal and landuse history in heterogeneous landscapes. *Soil Biology and Biochemistry* 38: 1158-1161.

Ponge, J.F., Gillet, S., Dubs, F., Fédoroff, E., Haese, L., Sousa, J.P., Lavelle, P., 2003. Collembolan communities as bioindicators of land use intensification. *Soil Biology and Biochemistry* 35, 813-826.

Sadaka, N., Ponge, J.F., 2003. Soil animal communities in holm oak forests: influence of horizon, altitude and year. *European Journal of Soil Biology* 39, 197-207.

Salmon, S., 2001. Earthworm excreta (mucus and urine) affect the distribution of springtails in forest soils. *Biology and Fertility of Soils* 34: 304-310.

Salmon, S., Geoffroy, J.J., Ponge, J.F., 2005. Earthworms and Collembola relationships: effects of predatory centipedes and humus forms. *Soil Biology and Biochemistry* 37, 487-495.

Salmon, S., Ponge, J.F., Van Straalen, N.M., 2002. Ionic identity of pore water influences pH preference in Collembola. *Soil Biology and Biochemistry* 34: 1663-1667.

Thibaud, J.M., 2008. The Collembola of littoral sands of Madagascar. *Annales de la Société Entomologique de France* 44, 503-519.

Van Straalen, N.M., 1997. Community structure of soil arthropods as a bioindicator of soil health. In: Pankhurst, C., Doube, B.M., Gupta, V.V.S.R. (Eds.), Biological indicators of soil health. CAB International, Wallingford, pp. 235-264.

Wiktelius, S., Chiverton, P.A., Meguenni, H., Bennaceur, M., Ghezal, F., Umeh, E.D.N., Egwuatu, R.I., Minja, E., Makusi, R., Tukahirwa, E., Tinzaara, W., Deedat, Y., 1999. Effects of insecticides on non-target organisms in African agroecosystems: a case for establishing regional testing programmes. *Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment*, 75, 121-131.
Witteveen, J., verhoef, H.A., Letschert, J.P.W., 1987. Osmotic and ionic regulation in marine littoral Collembola. Journal of Insect Physiology 33: 59-66.