Abstract:
This paper approaches by the soil-plant perspective the evaluation of plant ecophysiological parameters and biological
indicators of soil (edaphic mesofauna) in different grassland ecosystems with different degrees of human intervention
from the Northeastern Romania. We have studied natural reserves, pastures and hayfields, in two different geographical
units - Central Moldavian Plateau and Moldavian Plain. Based on these results, it was considered the human impact
through analysis of statistical indicators (arithmetic mean, standard deviation, coefficient of variation) in accordance
with the characteristics of studied biotopes. Ecophysiological parameters were assessed by analysis of
photosynthesizing pigments (chlorophylls and carotenoid pigments) and fractions of soluble carbohydrate. Variability
of photosynthetic indicators was lower in the case of species from natural reserves and larger, but elevated in secondary
meadows and pastures. Accumulation of the carbohydrates was discussed in relation with soil type and it was observed
the smallest values occurred in anthropic ecosystems (pastures) and in the natural reserve of Central Moldavian Plateau.
Bioedaphic indicators were represented by some main groups of soil mesofauna (mites, collembolans, and on the
whole, other insects or groups of edaphic microarthropods), analyzed both in a quantitative and qualitative manner. The
density of edaphic microarthropods from the grasslands of Moldavian Plain was higher than that of Central Moldavian
Plateau. From the qualitative point of view generally, the mites are the dominant group and among them the oribatid
mites prevails. The ratio between the main detritomicrophagous groups (oribatid mites/collembolans) is in the favour of
the mites with few exceptions. Both quantitative and qualitative features of the edaphic mesofauna mostly depend on
the biopedoclimatic stational conditions, especially to the degree of the environmental anthropization, humidity, type of
soil etc. The most anthropized grasslands could be considered the hayfields from haplic chernozem in both studied
geographic areas This study was financially supported by BIODIV Research Programme developed under coordination
of National Institute of Research and Development for Biological Sciences Bucharest.
