Soil Microarthropods: A Preliminary Study of Their Potential use as Bioindicators in Ecological Restoration

This study introduced students to the use of the soil microarthropods as
bioindicators of soil health by using population distribution data to evaluate
and compare ecological health at selected reclaimed sites in the Sudbury
area. The area has undergone extensive ecological degradation due to
anthropogenic impacts such as forestry and smelting, followed by decades of
revegetation treatments. The treatments included the application of dolomitic
limestone and fertilizer, seeding with grasses and legumes followed by tree
planting and, most recently, the selective placement of imported forest-floor
transplant plots on selected regreened sites. The morphology of collected
Humus Forms from both untreated and treated sites were described in detail,
with soil arthropods being then extracted using a series of Berlese-Tullgren
funnels for estimates of population membership and diversity which were then
interpreted as indicators of ecological health status. The results from this
small preliminary study indicated that the transplant plots have greater humus
form profile development, an observation suggestive of higher levels of
arthropod activity and species diversity producing more organic detritus
promoting higher microbiological decomposition rates. The lack of extensive
sample replication, coupled with identification of the arthropods mainly to the
order level, limit any definitive conclusions from being drawn from this study,
although it most certainly served as a valuable learning experience.