Development of a sampling design for soil zoological investigations of monitoring sites in Salzburg (Austria).

This project is part of a soil monitoring programme in Salzburg, Austria, which aims to characterize the present status of soil properties ('soil health') and follow up their development over time. We intend tp provide a basis for the future soil zoological contributions to the programme. Lumbricidae, Enchytraeidae, Oribatida and Collembola are sampled at a selected monitoring site and abundance, number of species, and community parameters are estimated, compared to literature and evaluated. The raw sample data and the determination literature will be communicated to allow for re-analysis of the data and recognition of future changes in the animal communities. On this basis we will propose a sampling scheme for statistically proper soil zoological work at monitoring sites.