Soil mite diversity from Ivory coast

Soil fauna and particularly mites remained poorly know in most african ecosystems. In order to beter understand is change regarding forest management, Lamto savannah (LAS), Oumé primary forest (OPF), teak plantation (OTK) situated in (Sudanese domain) and the Tai primary forest (TPF) (Guinean domain) were sampled twice in Ivory Coast. Mite extraction was done during one week in Berlese-Tullgren funnel systems. In whole 177 species and morphospecies were recorded, with respectivelly LAS: 85 species, OPF: 98, OTK: 51 and TPF: 66. Shannon index estimated for mites was highest in TPF (5.13) and lowest in OTK (4.63). Evenness values were close in the 4 sites: LAS (0.745), OPF (0.742), OTK (0.816), TPF (0.849). OTK and TPF were the most different sites, with only 23 mite species in common (Jaccard distance = 76). Many mite species (100/177) were exclusive and were collected in a single site. The species richness was maximum in the upper layer and decrease with soil depth. Beta diversity measured along the depth is greater than that measured along the transect. Concerning soil parameters, !app, Ctot,Ntot, Depth and CORG were correlated to the species richness.