ENVIRONMENTAL CONSEQUENCES in rocky mountain coniferous ...

Table 1 .--Mean total mesofauna populations on four treated areas and in an undisturbed
forest during the sumer of 1976.
Treatment June July August September
1. Clearcut
Residue removed by
prercri bed fire
2. Clearcut
Residue removed
mechanically
3. Shelterwood cut
Residue removed by 4 1 - - 103 178
prescribed f i re
4. Shelterwood cut
Residue removed
mechanical ly
5. Undisturbed
Adjacent forest
Vertical Distri butSon of Mesofauna
Generally, animals tended to be concentrated in the organic layers of the soil,
particularly the 02 or humus stratum. Excluding the incomplete July samples, more
than twice as many arthropods were found in the 02 layer as in the surface layer of
I ltter or 01. The top 6 cm (2.25 in) of mineral soil contained only one-fourth as
many animals as the humus and opulations in the woody layer were less than one-tenth
of those in the humus (table 2 ! .
Table 2. --Mean total mesofaunal populations in the 1 i tter, humus, wood, and mineral
soil layers in June, August, and September of 1976.
Month Horizon
Li tter Humus Wood Mineral
01 0 2 soi 1
June 64 123 23 24
August 130 350 63 116
September 202 451 0 89