Collembolan community organization and its temporal predictability

Long-term investigations on Collembola in Russian forests revealed that bot h stable and fluctuating communities can exist in natural ecosystems. Stabl e collembolan communities are characteristic of mesic moisture conditions, whilst fluctuating communities are typical of either xeric or hygric habita ts. Stable communities are deter mined by between-year constancy in species and ecological structures, though other characteristics (for instance, tot al collembolan abundance or number of species) can vary. Stability of colle mbolan communities is externally stimulated by the constancy of environment al conditions or by their cyclic changing. Stable collembolan communities a re best suited for the bioindication of long-term anthropogenic impacts on natural ecosystems, whereas fluctuating communities better reflect short-te rm environmental changes. A temporal predictability is possible only for st able communities.