PERIODICUM BIOLOGORUM UDC 57:61 VOL. 116, No 3, 303–312, 2014 CODEN PDBIAD ISSN 0031-5362 Original scientific paper Characterisic soil mite’s communities (Acari: Gamasina) for some natural forests from Bucegi Natural Park – Romania ABSTRACT MINODORA MANU1 STELIAN ION2 Background and Purpose: One of the most important characteristics 1Romanian Academy, Institute of Biology, of a natural ecosystem is its stability, due to the species’ and communities’ Department of Ecology, Taxonomy and diversity. Natural forest composition model constitute the main task of the Nature Conservation, street Splaiul Independentsei, present-day management plans. Soil mites are one of the most abundant no. 296, PO-BOX 56-53 edaphic communities, with an important direct and indirect role in decom- 0603100, Bucharest, Romania posing, being considered bioindicators for terrestrial ecosystems. The aim of 2Romanian Academy, Institute of Statistics and the paper was to identify characteristics of soil mites community’s structure. Applied Mathematics “Gheorghe Mihoc-Caius Iacob” – ISMMA Materials and Methods: Soil mites community’s structure (composition street Calea 13 Septembrie, no. 13, sector 5, of the species assemblage, abundance of the species, species associations and Bucharest, Romania interdependence between species) from three mature natural forest ecosys- E-mail:
[email protected] tems, from Bucegi Natural Park -Romania, were analyzed using statistical Correspondence: analyses, which combine two different methods: cluster analysis and correla- Minodora Manu tions. Romanian Academy, Institute of Biology Results: Two different species associations were described. One of them Department of Ecology, Taxonomy and Nature Conservation was identified as stable association in a hierarchical cluster and another, street Splaiul Independentsei, no.