McBrayer, J. F.; Ferris, J. M.; Metz, L. J.; Gist, C. S.; Cornaby, B. W.; Kitazawa, Y.; Kitazawa, T.; Wernz, J. G.; Krantz, G. W.; Jensen, H. 1977. Decomposer invertebrate populations in U.S. forest biomes. Pedobiologia. 17: 89-96.
Decomposition, as an ecosystem process, is effected by microflora and invertebrates in asynergistic manner. The microflora are capable of accomplishing decomposition, albeitslowly, in the absence of the invertebrate animals (KuE6Eva 1960, 1964), and typically areresponsible for more than 90% of the CO, evolved in forest decomposition (REICHLE et al.1975). The invertebrates are known to stimulate microbial respiration (AusMus et al., inpress) possibly by improvement of substrate through fragmentation (EDWARDS and HEATH1963; WALLWORK 1970), chemical as well as physical changes (VAN DER DRIFT and WIT-KAMP 1960; MCBRAYER 1973a). or regulation of growth phases (AusMus 1974). Consequently,understanding the composition, population dynamics, and activity of soil invertebrates isessential to understanding the dynamics of forest decomposition. This paper reports ondecomposer invertebrate work supported by the two forest biome projects of the U. S. IBP.Much of the detailed information from these studies, beyond the scope of this paper, willbe published elsewhere. This paper will concentrate on comparisons of numbers of inverte-brates among sites and relate population densities to site factors. It will also indicate twointeresting corollaries which became apparent during these studies, vertical migrationcycles and interactions between mesofauna and microfauna.