COLLEMBOLAN COMMUNITIES (HEXAPODA, COLLEMBOLA) IN ARABLE SOILS OF EAST SLOVAKIA

During 1991-1993 collembolan communities were investigated in two agri cultural areas in East Slovakia: the East-Slovak Lowland and the Kosic e Basin. The study was carried out in cultivated areas on two differen t soil types, albic luvisol and eutric fluvisol, which were each repli cated at six sites and sampled at two-month intervals. Species richnes s of Collembola varied between 35-60 species. Collembolan abundance, o n the other hand, was generally low, having a significantly higher mea n value on the eutric fluvisol (1,380 m(-2)) compared to the albic luv isol (1,010 m(-2)). Positive correlations were found between collembol an abundance and content of organic carbon (p<0.05), nitrogen (p < 0.0 5) and phosphorus (p < 0.01) in the soil. Multivariate analysis of qua ntitative data showed that collembolan community structure was more in fluenced by location of a given site than by soil type.