Short-term responses of two collembolan communities after abrupt environmental perturbation: A field experimental approach

SummaryA soil transfer field experiment was designed in order to study (i) whether and how Collembolan communities are affected by sudden perturbation (a shift from agricultural land to heathland, and the reverse), and (ii) whether different species respond similarly and to the same extent as a function of their habitat preference (ascertained by controls). The study was conducted in Parc Naturel Régional de la Brenne (Indre, France) on private property where the land was divided between heathland and pasture. We showed that heathland differed from pasture in its species composition, which is not novel, but that the two communities did not evolve in the same manner when transferred to another environment. The heathland community seemed more stable than the pasture community, although it was colonized by the surrounding fauna within 2 months, while the pasture community appeared less stable when transferred into heathland.