Diversidad de Colémbolos Epiedáficos (Hexápoda: Collembola) presentes en plantaciones de Eucalyptus pellita F. Muell. en el municipio de Villanueva–Casanare

Abstract

The primary productivity of forests depends mainly on organic matter decomposer organisms that have an important role in nutrient recycling and soil stability. Colembolos (Collembola) are arthropods considered as bioindicators since they are sensitive to changes generated in the environment, either anthropic or natural. Taking into account the important role of springtails in soils, their diversity was estimated in three different types of cover (pastures, plantations of E. pellita and gallery forest), in the municipality of Villanueva-Casanare to identify the effect of land use change with the introduction of plantations to the area. Samplings were carried out by transects with fall traps containing 200 ml of preservative (40% propylene glycol) during the dry season (November 2014) and the wet season (May 2015). The Alpha and Beta diversity of collembola were compared to the genus level and the diversity found was explained according to environmental and dasometric variances through a redundancy analysis (RDA). A total of 1,157 springtails were collected, distributed in the orders Entomobryomorpha (62%), Poduromorpha (17%) and Symphypleona (21.1%) and a total of 12 families and 26 genera. No significant differences were found in the effective diversity of genera between the land uses compared. On the other hand, during the dry season, the diversity of collembolans decreased considerably in all the coverages compared. In the Beta diversity analysis, it was identified that there is similarity of genera between the planting ages of 2,8 and 14 years with the pastures and suggests that the community of collembola present in the soil prior to planting is maintained during the plantation shift. The Nitrogen content was the most important explanatory variable of the Ptenotrix genus and the height variable of the trees of the Entomobrya genus. The results suggest that the change in land use from pastures to forest plantations did not significantly influence the diversity of epiedaphic colembolos in the study area of the Orinoquia region.