Soil macrofauna in native forests and forest monocultures in the central region of Rio Grande do sul state, Brazil

The vegetation cover type and land use influence the diversity and abundance of edaphic fauna organisms. The soil macrofauna diversity and abundance were determined in the mature native forest (MNF), advanced native forest (ANF), mixed forest (MF), native grassland (NG), eucalyptus reforestation (E), pine (P), and Japanese grape (JG) located at the Forest Research Center, in Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil. The Macrofauna collections were carried out in winter, using the following tropical Soil Biology and Fertility (TSBF) methodology, with four monoliths per ecosystem. A total of 6372 individuals m⁻² belonging to 12 Orders were collected: Araneae, Blattodea, Chilopoda, Coleoptera, Dermaptera, Diptera, Diplopoda, Gastropoda, Hymenoptera, Lepdoptera, Oligochaeta and Orthoptera. The macrofauna diversity index was higher in MNF, followed by E > ANF > MF > JG > P > NG. The eucalyptus monoculture showed the highest species richness (11 spp), followed by NG (9) and MNF (9), ANF (8), MF (7), P (5) and JG (5). The abundance of macrofauna individuals was higher in the native grassland. The monocultures of pine and Japanese grape monocultures showed a species richness 45.5% lower than of the native fields. The floristic composition diversity influenced the diversity of soil macrofauna diversity organisms.