Research Branch Staff Publications

Preliminary assessment of selected communities of soil organisms under different conifer species.

Citation:

Berch, S.M., B. Baumbrough, J. Battigelli, P Kroeger, N. Strub, and L. de Montigny. 2001. Preliminary assessment of selected communities of soil organisms under different conifer species. B.C. Min. For., Res. Br., Victoria, BC. Research Report 20.

Abstract:

This study used the second-growth plantations of Douglas-fir, western hemlock, Sitka spruce, and western redcedar of the Ministry of Forests Experimental Project 571 (species-espacement trial established in 1965-1966 on southern Vancouver Island) to take a preliminary look at the effects of different conifer species on collembolan, oribatid mite, and macrofungal species. For all three groups of soil organisms, overall frequency or abundance and diversity were noticeably less under western redcedar compared with the other conifer species. Using similarity indices, we found that the macrofungus communities (species and abundance) differed under the various conifers. The community of forest floor oribatid mites under Douglas-fir was distinct, but we could not detect differences between the other conifer species. We could not detect differences in forest floor collembolan communities between any of the conifers.

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