ABSTRACT
Mesofauna comprises animals of body sizes ranging from 0.2 to 2.0mm whose abundance cannot be accurately assessed by means of hand sorting from the soil. Enchytraeidae, Acari (mites), Collembola (collembolans), Protura, Pauropoda and some Nematoda are typical members of the mesofauna, but larval forms of macrofaunal species also fall within the size range of mesofauna. The sampling for mesofauna (and other soil biota) is integrated within the overall strategy for the inventory of below-ground biodiversity as described in Chapter 2. At each sampling point, soil cores are located in two concentric circles, at 3m and 6m radius from the monolith, and supplemented by pitfalls located at least 14m from the monolith centre. Mesofauna is collected by using two sampling methods: a) a pooled sample of soil cores and surface litter is extracted either by Berlese–Tullgren or by a modified Berlese, and b) from the fluid contents of pitfall traps. Soil cores are used primarily to collect mesofauna that inhabit the mineral soil beneath the surface litter and the litter itself, whereas pitfall trap methods are applied to collect soil surface dwellers.
