DIVERSITY OF ENERGY FLUXES AND INTERACTIONS BETWEEN ARTHROPOD COMMUNITIES - FROM SOIL TO CAVE

The vertical distribution of a species may directly indicate the stage of organic matter decomposition in which it takes parr. Observations have so far been limited to superficial layers, but studies on the con tinuum from the litter to underground biotopes, through the recently d iscovered superficial underground compartment, open new perspectives i n the analyses of matter and energy fluxes, Sampling at different leve ls, from leaf litter to caves, using pitfall traps and sunken tubes, h as revealed the existence of exchanges of organic matter and Arthropod a between different layers. The importation of energy from soil to cav e follows two routes: passive and active. For the passive route, I mea sured dissolved substances in water at five levels. For the active rou te, I evaluated the migrations of insects and other invertebrates (dow nwards as well as upwards). For the analysis of arthropod communities, using the notion of functional groups, I showed the existence of link s between two components, hypogean species, and endogean-epigean speci es, defining an ecotone along the vertical gradient 'soil to cave'. Th e superficial underground compartment is nor isolated, but is rather a whole food web with epigean and endogean organisms penetrating and in terlinking with another web of hypogean origin. (C) Elsevier, Paris.