A Sociological Analysis of Soil Collembola

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Abstract
Samples obtained in field investigations may be handled by comparison of those from individual habitats, or by consideration of the associations of species. Weaknesses and strengths of the methods are discussed. Stress is placed upon a method whereby pairs of species are considered as to whether, in a large number of samples, they are strongly positively, weakly positively, weakly negatively or strongly negatively associated, or whether they exhibit neither negative nor positive association. Names of individual species are placed on squared paper over vertical columns, and numbers of individual samples are placed horizontally. Abundance of each species in each sample is depicted in the squares. From the results thus denoted, pairs of species are examined pair by pair and then arranged on a triangle of squares such that individual species are shown both horizontally and vertically in the same order. Degree of association of the pairs is then symbolized in the appropriate squares, and groups of species are picked out and placed together on the diagram. Illustrations are given from the Collembola collected in two very different locations in Sweden, namely from a high-mountain area, and from a southern sand-dune area. The occurrence of a high degree of association among groups of pairs of species is discussed, both synecologically and autecologically. Although the method is basically gynecological, autecological questions spring from the analysis, and many of the questions would not have come forth by other methods of analysis, even autological ones.

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