Abstract

PRIETO TRUEBA, Dania; VAZQUEZ GONZALEZ, Ma. Magdalena  and  RODRIGUEZ ARAGONES, Carlos. Comunidades de la mesofauna edáfica en una selva baja inundable de la Reseva de la Biósfera de Sian Kaan, Quintana Roo, México. Rev. biol. trop [online]. 1999, vol.47, n.3, pp.489-492. ISSN 0034-7744.

The flood lowland forest is a typical ecosystem of the Sian Kaan Biosphere in southeast Mexico. Two soil dwelling microarthropod samples were taken from areas with different topographies, one in the dry season (March 1995) and one in the rainy season (July 1995). In the rainy season, mean density was three times higher. Numerically, the Oribatid mites predominate, followed by Collembola and Pauropoda, regardless of the season or location. In March, the communities are concentrated in the soil, while the July sample showed a migration to the leaf litter. There was no significant seasonal difference in densities. The proportion Acarida: Collembola and the value of the Green Agregation Index for Collembola shows the marked effect of dry soils for this group.

Keywords : Flood forest; microarthropods; Oribatid mites; Collembola; Pauropoda.