| Summary: | This research was to study the distribution and abundance of soil animals at
natural and disturbed tropical mountain forest in Kamojang geothermal area at above
1300 msl, West Java. The natural forest was secondary forest and had 5 layers. The
disturbed forest had big gap-area. At each location we extracted the soil animals used
Tullgren funnel methods with 10 replicates. The parameter measures were: animal
density, soil temperature, soil moisture, pH, humidity, light intensity, and soil
nutrients: NO3, NH4, PO4, K+, C, and organic matter. The result showed that there
were 4 functional groups: saprophytic feeders, carnivores, phytophagus feeders and
microphytic feeders, around in consecutively between 52-62% 16-27%, 6-14% and 6-
19%. The highest density for functional group of soil animals in nature and disturbed
forest is saprophytic feeders 77-234/4,2dm3. However the species at each location
reflected the type of plant species of vegetation. Almost of species at natural and
disturbed tropical mountain forest was similar. Therefore the community of soil
animals at Kamojang mountain forest were not indicator of forest conditions.
Functional group saprophytic feeders consisted of 12-22 species, carnivores 7-12
species, phytophagus feeders 5-13, and microphytic feeders 2-5 species. The presence
of soil animal�s community depended on plant species of vegetation at tropical
mountain forest Kamojang.
|
|---|