The soil fauna of beech forests: comparison between a mull and a moder soil

In comparison to moder conditions, the mull forest is characterized by higher species numbers, more equable rank-abundance relations, higher faunal biomass (approximately 15 g dry mass•m −2 ), dominance of macrofauna and microfauna, and greater trophic diversity with a preponderance of saprophagous animals. In contrast, the moder forest has lower species numbers with only few species dominating, lower faunal biomass (about 5 g dry mass•m −2 ), and higher numbers of mesofaunal, microphytophagous animals. The mull soil fauna penetrates to deeper soil horizons than the moder soil fauna. Under moder soil conditions the biomass of the mesofauna tends to fluctuate widely