Diversity and dynamics of microarthropods from different biotopes of Las Sardinas cave (Mexico)

By

Palacios-Vargas, J. G. (José Guadalupe)
Castaño-Meneses, Gabriela
Estrada, Daniel A.

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2011

Original Publication

Subterranean Biology

Volume

9

Pages

113-126

Subjects

Cave communities , Distribution , energy fluxes , food resources , microarthropods

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/subtbiol.9.2514

 

Abstract

An ecological study of the microarthropod communities from Las Sardinas cave was undertaken. Four different biotopes were studied over the course of a year: bat guano, litter, soil under the chemoautotrophic bacteria colonies and as a control, plain soil without litter or guano. A total of 27,913 specimens of a total of 169 species were collected. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) showed that there is a significant effect of biotope on the recorded density, and the post hoc Tukey’s test showed that guano is the most different biotope with the highest value of density recorded. The interaction between season and biotope variables was not significant. In the most extreme case, 99 percent of the microarthropods in soil under chemoautotrophic bacteria were mites, mainly in the family Histiostomidae.