Collembola as bioindicators of restoration in mined sand dunes of Northeastern Brazil

Opencast mining causes severe environmental impacts by removing the vegetation cover and depleting the fauna. Reforestation methods using native species and diverse pre- and post-disturbance approaches aim to recover the original richness and diversity of species found before the impact. Bioindicators are powerful tools to evaluate the restoration of the original environmental conditions in disturbed areas. We used species richness, endemism and diversity measurements of Collembola to compare successional stages in reforested sites of different ages compared with a control undisturbed area. Richness and abundance of Collembola were subjected to correlation analysis with age of plots and vegetational variables. Areas that were reforested for up to 16 years supported a much lower Collembola species richness than undisturbed areas. Both the age of reforestation plots and vegetation variables (number of trees, diameter of crowns, depth of leaf litter and tree species richness) were positively and significantly correlated to collembolan abundance and richness. The results showed that the diversity of the 16-year-old plot was significantly higher than that of younger areas, but significantly less diverse than that of the control area. Endemic species were more sensitive to disturbance than non-endemics. Thus, species richness and diversity of soil Collembola can be only partially restored with appropriate reforestation methods, and although it takes many years, to some extent even endemic species can be gradually restored. Nevertheless, the maintenance of undisturbed diversity reservoirs linked by ecological corridors to reforested plots is imperative, as only undisturbed areas can support most of the endemic species able to re-colonize reforested sites.