Effects of vehicle disturbance and soil compaction on Arctic collembolan abundance and diversity on Igloolik Island, Nunavut, Canada

Collembolan abundance and diversity in the Arctic are adversely affected by soil compaction and disturbance (vehicle tracks). In comparisons made with undisturbed soil (adjacent to the tracks) at two sites on polar semi-desert Arctic tundra: 1) Cemetery Ridge and 2) Arnaqquaksaat Point, on Igloolik island, Nunavut, Canada (69°22 N, 81°47 W), there were significantly fewer Collembola extracted from disturbed and compacted soils on the tracks (2 and 11 at sites 1 and 2, respectively) than from undisturbed soils (236 and 301 at sites 1 and 2, respectively). Collembolan species diversity was also lower on the vehicle tracks than off the tracks at both sites (2 and 5 versus 11 and 10, respectively). Values of Shannon–Weaver’s index for sites 1 and 2 were 0.70 and 1.30 on the tracks, but 1.54 and 1.44 off the tracks, and Simpson’s index also showed a similar pattern at 2.00 and 2.81 versus 3.47 and 2.95, respectively.