EXERCISE 16

Soil Diversity
Agluba, De Guzman, Estipular, Lagatuz, Ribargoso, Rivadelo & Villanueva

I. INTRODUCTION

Soil organisms, an important part of the underground living system, can be divided into six groups:
bacteria, fungi, protozoa, nematodes, arthropods and earthworms. Soil microarthropods are abundant small
invertebrates that live in soil and litter layer. Typical microarthropods include mites, springtails,
pseudoscorpio these microarthropods can be important in controlling the rate on and altering nutrient
cycline. Although most soil organisms are too small to be seen with unaided eye, some nematodes,
arthropods and earthworms can be easily remove mom soil sample and then observed.

In this laboratory we will use the leaf litter arthropod community to learn techniques for assessing
density, diversity, relative abundance, and rank abundance. We will examine some local microarthropods
and determine wheine litter they inhabit influences their abundance, richness, and composition.

Collecting invertebrates like microarthropods from samples containing or matter and sediments is
very difficult. Picking all of these small microanthropods from the samples requires using microscopes and
is very time consuming. Instead, soil ecologists often use passive collection methods like Berlese funnels.
Berlese funnels Cars advantage of the fact that soil microarthropods like moist, cool habitats. Light and
heat from an incandescent light bulb force the microarthropods in the funnels to move away from the light,
where they eventually drop into a collection cup containing a preservative.

The biomass of organisms is often low compared with the mineral or humus fraction, but the
organism activity is absolutely crucial for a functioning soil. The soil biota can be regarded as the
“biological engine of the earth” and is implicated in most of the key functions soil provides in terms of
ecosystem services, by driving many fundamental nutrient cycling processes, soil structural dynamics,
degradation of pollutants, and regulation of plant communities. Microbially driven soil processes play key
roles in mediating global climate change, by acting as C sources and sinks and by generation of greenhouse
gases such as nitrogen oxides and methane. (Moulder, 2003)

The Berlese (pronounced "bur LAY zee") funnel is an ingenious trap, based on avoidance behavior,
used to remove organisms from the soil. The funnel can be made from a simple desk lamp and plastic pop
bottle. Because soil organisms prefer a cold, dark and moist environment, like the conditions in soil, they
try to escape when exposed to the heat, light and dryness created when a lamp shines directly on the soil.

This method is a simple way of estimating how sufficient the soil from a certain area by evaluating
various living organisms. This was first used in 1905 by Antonio Berlese wherein he created a technique
containing hot water jacket is used as a heat source. In 1918, this was revamped by Albert Tulgren by
utilizing a electrib bulb to replace the hot water jacket and an iron sheet drum to construct a heat gradient.
This works by triggering the temperature gradient above the sample so that the organism will pull out from
the high temperature that will directly fall to the collecting vial (Imes, 1992).

The exercise will require two laboratory periods. During the first period we will sample the
community and set up Berlese extraction funnels in the laboratory. We will also have a short lecture on the
identification of soil arthropods. During the second period we will sort, identify, and count the arthropods
from our samples. On your own time you will calculate densities, Simpson diversity, relative abundance,
and rank abundance using Excel.

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II. OBJECTIVES

 To be able to learn techniques for assessing density abundance and rank abundance of leaf litter
arthropod community.
 To be able to sort, identify, and count the arthropods in the arthropods from the litter samples.

III. MATERIALS

1 Cup soil Paper Towel

2 liter plastic Hardware Magnifying
with plant and
drink bottle Screen Glass
litter Cheesecloth

IV. PROCEDURES

A. Overview

Remove sample
Remove soil core
Place soil core in from extractor.
from field to Analyze Data.
Berlese Extractor Enumerate
plastic bag
specimens

B. Quick and Ease Berlese Extractor Construction

Carefully and evenly Obtain a circular piece

cut 4” off of bottle with
Obtain 2 liter plastic
either a straight-edge
soda bottle.
for opening cardboard
boxes, or scissors.
of hardware-cloth or
metal mesh equal in
size to the diameter of
the bottle.

Place inside cylindrical Place the removed

part of inverted bottle
so that it cornes to rest
horizontally where
bottle starts to contract
to form neck.
bottom 4" of the bottle
Fill the "cup" with
underneath the holes to
about non-poisonous
as a specimen
anti-freeze.
collector/collecting
vial.

C. In the field

Marking out the Cut the 4 edges Insert the trowel

Digging trench
25 cm x 25 cm vertically of the horizontally. Lift
2.5 cm long by
margins on the 2.5 x 2.5 the sample into
3.0 cm deep
soil with the end markings to 1.0- labelled plastic
along one edge.
of trowel 1.5cm depth bag.

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D. In the laboratory
Transfer the leaf litter
or soil sample on the
hardware
D2.
Position the desk lamp
closely over the funnel so
that the light warms the
surface of the soil.
Wash the contents through
a line (253 mm) sieve,
using water from a squirt
bottle.
As the dirt is placed in
extractor, break up any
Remove any
clods so that the
earthworms to a
arthropods can emigrate
separate specimen vial.
properly from a sample
of even consistency.
Break the clods apart
without squashing the
soil.
Alter 16 hours, carefully
Leave the set-up
undisturbed for the collecting vial is
removed from your Berlese
approximately 16 hours.
funnel.
Next wash the contents of
Add sufficient water to the
the sieve into a large Petri
dish so all specimens are
dish with water from the
completely immersed.
squirt bottle.
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Figure 1. Shows the Field set up of transect line 25 by 25 cm margins on the soil was marked and 5
cm depth was established.

Figure 2. Shows the Berlese funnel set up with and without the yellow light. The collecting vial
beneath contains formalin.

D3. Store prepared for next laboratory class for sorting, identification and counting.

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D5. SORTING, IDENTIFICATION, AND COUNTING

Carefully place the Petri dish on

Sort and identify the animals
the stage of the dissecting
under a dissecting microscope.
microscope. .

Using microdissecting tools

provided sort the organisms into Assign a number to each
groups o (phena) that you think phenon within a group
represent species.

D6. CLEANUP

Return the Dismantle the

Rinse the Petri
Empty the petri dissecting Berlese apparatus.
dish and your vial
dish into the microscope to Put the leaves in
and place them in
container provided laboratory the garbage bag
the drainer
technicians provided

D7. CALCULATIONS:

Calculate for the density (Di), relative

abundance (ReA), and rank abundance Calculate for the Simpson Diversity
(RaA)..

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IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Figure 3. Garden soil.

Garden soil was used in the experiment which was a topsoil from the botanical garden. At the time
of sorting and identification in the Berlese funnel using a dissecting microscope, there were three identified
arthropods: a millipede (Julida), a house centipede (Scutigera coleoptrata), and a spider.These arthropods
have essential role in perpetuating the fertility of the soil. Additionally, they trigger the mineralization of
nutrients in the soil, facilitate soil processes, contribute to the decomposition and humification,and
influence the nutrient cycling and soil structure (Curry,1994).A feasible aspect contributing to the high
diversity of organisms observed in the soil used because the organisms must have already settled to their
optimal area (Bagyaraj, 2011). Also, the dryness of the garden soil was noticed that may have allowed the
arthropods to ebb from the funnel. The method gave a positive result of the biodiversity of the soil seeing
that it only works on dry soil and traps organisms that do not dehydrate quickly and mobile.

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 Flatted segmented body

Figure 6. Centipede under stereomicroscope (40x)

Legs
Trunk

Antenna

Figure 7. Milipede under stereomiscroscope (40x)

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 Thorax

Spinnerets Legs

Figure 8. Spider under stereomiscroscope (40x)

Figure 4. Computations for Species Diversity

In figure 4, the density is computed which is the amount of organism found in the area while the
abundance denotes the number of species found in the soil sample. The relative abundance pertains to how

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abundant or limited a species is to others in an area. The arthropod biodiversity depends on the amount of
organic matter present. Every collected arthropods were different, thus it is high diversity. Simpson
diversity index was used to prove the high diversity. The computed result is equal to one (1) which means
it is completely diverse.

RANK ABUNDANCE CURVE (RAA)

Centipede Milepede Spider
0.35

0.3

0.25
PROPORTION

0.2

0.15

0.1

0.05

0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5
RANK

Figure 5a. Graph of the RaA of Soil Arthropods.

RANK ABUNDANCE (RaA)

3.5
Earthworms
3

2.5
PROPORTION

1.5

0.5 Centipede Milipede Snail Spider

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
-0.5
RANK

Figure 5b. Graph of the RaA of overall Invertebrates collected.

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 To compute for the species richness and evenness of the community, we graphed its rank
abundance. It is also called the Whittaker plot which shows the relative species abundance. In figure 5a,
each species were ranked and have similar values. The collected arthropods was graphed. The slope
arthropod community is straight which means it has a high diversity. In figure 5b, the graph of the overall
invertebrates was shown. The slope is moderately steep at the beginning of the curve, thus the species
evenness is also moderately low.As seen on the graph, earthworms were highly abundant species.

V. CONCLUSION

The Berlese channel procedure is proven to be useful strategy for evaluating the diversity of
creatures present in a specific soil test. The utilization of Berlese funnel set up in this experiment
demonstrated that there was high biodiversity of organisms found. Additionally, the use of the formula of
Simpson diversity aids in quantifying diversity. The diversity would increase with the amount of organic
matter.

References
 Berlese Funnel Extraction. http://www.ctic.purdue.edu/CTIC/Berlese.html
 Bree Yednock and John Hutchens. 2001. Soil Microarthropod Lab.http://ww2.coastal.edu/jjhutchel
 Fowler, J.. L. Cohen, and P. Jarvis. 1998. Practical Statistics for Field Biology. Second Edition.
John Wiley & Sons, England, Fox. R. 2000. Field and Laboratory Exercises. Lander University,
Greenwood, South Carolina, U.S.A.
 Fox, Richard S. 2004. personal communication. www.lander.edu/rssox.
 McComas, F. (Ed.). 2002. Investigating Ecology in the laboratory. National Association
 of Biology Teachers, Virginia, U.S.A.
 Smith, R. L. 1979. Ecology and Field Biology. Harper and Row. New York, U.S.A.
 Treece G.D. 2000. Artemia Production for Marine Larval Fish Culture. Southern
 Regional Aquaculture Center (SRAC) Publication No.702)
 Curry JP (1994) Grassland invertebrates: ecology, infl uence on soil fertility and effects on plant
growth. Chapman & Hall, London, p 437
 Bagyaraj DJ (2011) Microbial biotechnology for sustainable agriculture, horticulture and forestry.
NIPA Publishers, New Delhi

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