Soil and pedomesofauna relationships under different forests on a western slope of Etna Volcano

Although the pedofauna influences the processes of pedogenesis and has an important role in the main functional properties of the soil, it has rarely been used as a key-element in defining soil quality. As has been stressed, this is due to the fact that the utility of pedofauna as a soil quality indicator is a function of the definition of soil quality which, in turn, depends on different functions, both biotic and abiotic, performed by the soil. If we consider the biological functions of vegetal, animal and microbiotic activity, the usefulness of the pedofauna, as a diagnostic element of soil quality, reaches its maximum since it is one of the indicators of the biodiversity. Previous work on soil fauna, dealt with the whole fauna both of litter and mineral horizons, and until now the analyses on invertebrate communities in different horizons of a soil profile are fairly rare. The aim of this study was a) consider the diversity and activity of some selected Orders of the mesofauna in some forest Andisols, in relation to the sampling period, the soil horizons and tree species; b) define the relationships between the whole mesofauna and some selected parameters of soil quality, particularly the cation exchange capacity and the organic matter content.