A cooperation of the Departments of Zoology and Entomology
at the
State
Museum
of Natural History
Karlsruhe
,
Germany
(SMNK)
and
Department of Soils and Agricultural Engineering
at
University of Paraná
,
Brazil
(UFPR)
with participation of
ECT Oekotoxikologie GmbH,
Flörsheim
,
Germany
Society for Wildlife Research and Environmental Education (SPVS),
Curitiba
,
Brazil
Philipps-University Marburg: Department of Animal Ecology,
Marburg
,
Germany
State University of Londrina, Brazil
contact:
Dr. Hubert Höfer (SMNK) E-Mail: hubert.hoefer [at] smnk.de
Dr. Renato Marques (UFPR) E-Mail: marques [at] agrarias.ufpr.br
SOLOBIOMA studies the soil biota, ranging from microorganisms and tiny decomposers like pot-worms to ecosystem engineers like earthworms and top predators of the food web like spiders and ants. Their diversity and their function in he nutrient cycling processes of the forests are of special interest.
The coastal region in the Brazilian state of Paraná encompasses the best preserved continuous forest remnant of the Mata Atlântica. Lying at the transition from the tropical to the subtropical zone, coastal forests in Paraná grow from close to the sealine on sandy podzol soils and ground-water influenced gleysols on the coastal plains up to the mountains where they grow on cambisols. Soils influence the biotic conditions, the vegetation structure and the land use as well as the regeneration capacity of the forests.
The project aims at the recognition of how the diversity of soil organisms develops during regeneration from pastures to young secondary forests to old growth forests and how the soil functions perform under these conditions. After being collected with a variety of methods, soil organisms are grouped by their function (decomposer, predator) and in selected taxa diversity is analysed on the species level. Tree growth, seed- and litterfall, litter cover and decomposition rates are measured and correlated with organism density and biomass.
In the subproject ”Role of soil biota in litter decomposition and nutrient cycling”
three new study sites, in addition to the already established sites of the Brazilian partner in a Restinga forest area, were selected and installed in the coastal plain ear Antonina (Reserva do Cachoeira). Regulary sampling of litter, soil and soil water for the nutrient analyses by the Brazilian equipe already started (or continued) during 2003. The comparative sampling of the soil fauna and the exposition of the litterbag series in the 6 study sites was planned and prepared for November, 2003, but could not be realized due to the sudden and unexpected death of our coordinator and zoologist Dr. Werner Hanagarth in September 2003.
His coordination functions in the project coordination were subsequently taken over by Dipl. Ing. agr. Rainer Fabry and the zoological work by Dipl. Biol. Ludger Scheuermann.
Large amounts of litter material of three selected tree species, one common in each of the study regions and one occurring in both regions, were sampled and prepared for exposition in litterbags in the last months of 2003.
The microdrile earthworms (Enchytraeidae, Naididae and Tubificidae) have been sampled and their species composition and abundance have been evaluated according to our time schedule by the colleagues of ECT (Dr. Römbke, Dr. Schmelz).
An Infra-red gas analyzer (IRGA) and the associated technical equipment for the determination of microbial respiration and biomass were installed at the laboratory of UFPR in October 2004. Sampling of soil and litter material for microbial analysis took place in May and in November 2003.
The following methods were set up at the UFPR incl. training of students in applying the methods: measurement of SIR and estimation of biomass, measurement of basal respiration, fungi/bacteria ratio and metabolic activity and the BIOLOG method to assess microbial metabolic diversity. Part of the soil samples were also analyzed for bacterial and fungal diversity (plate counts) and the main functional groups of microrganisms were identified by the Brazilian partner (Dr. G. Andrade, UE Londrina).
In the subproject “Diversity of soil biota under anthropogenic influence”
the focus is on the effects of anthropogenic disturbance on the diversity of soil biota in secondary forests of the Mata Atlântica. In this phase of the project we sample and analyze the community structure for a selected set of soil taxa, which are: ants (Formicidae), spiders (Araneae), pot worms (Enchytraeidae), earthworms (Glossoscolecidae) and microorganisms. Objectives of our research are to understand (1) how the community of the soil biota is composed in forests of different age and therefore different structure representing regeneration stages from former pasture and (2) how soil conditions (well drained cambisols vs. water logged gleysols) modulate the anthropogenic impact.
The study sites were selected and established from May to June 2003 in the Rio Cachoeira Nature Reserve (25°25' S, 48°40' W) near the town of
Antonina
. The Nature Reserve is owned and managed by our Brazilian partner the NGO Sociedade de Pesquisa em Vida Selvagem e Educação Ambiental (SPVS). To satisfy a two-factorial design we established a total of 27 study sites representing three replicates of three different forest ages on both soil types, cambisol and gleysol. For comparison three replicated sites have been established in pastures on both soil types and in old growth forests on cambisol.
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