Soil macroarthropod abundance and diversity in four different successional stages

by: Luke Johns

The abundance and diversity soil macroarthropod communities of four sites each representing a successional stage were studied and examined. The four sites in order of young to old were: an old field located on Nazareth College campus, a coniferous forest located at Isaac Gordon Nature Park, a mixed coniferous/deciduous forest located at Mendon Ponds, and finally a deciduous forest located at Wynd’s Woods across the street from Nazareth College. The hypothesis that abundance and diversity would increase along the successional pathway was not shown. The total abundance for each site was 24, 63, 6, and 65 respectively. Diversity according to the Shannon-Weiner Index was 1.48, 0.50, 0.69, and 0.88 respectively. The fact that no increasing trend was shown for abundance or diversity could have been due to small samples and small sample size, the four successional stages were not located next to each other, and that macroarthropods were only identified down to the Order level.

Research Advisor: William L. Hallahan, Ph.D., Nazareth College