International Journal of Biodiversity and Conservation Vol. 5(3), pp. 176-184, March 2013 Available online at http://www.academicjournals.org/IJBC DOI: 10.5897/IJBC12.118 ISSN 2141- 243X ©2013 Academic Journals Full Length Research Paper Diversity of Collembola (Arthropoda: Hexapoda) across different types of vegetation in Brazil Zeppelini Douglas 1,2 *, Queiroz Gabriel Costa 3 , Abrantes Eduardo Assis 3,6 , Bellini Bruno Cavalcante 4 , Medeiros Elvio Sergio Figueredo 1 , Oliveira Elisiana Pereira 5 , Silveira Tatiana Cristina 3 , Neves Ana Carolina Rocha 3 , Soares Aila Ferreira 4 , Godeiro Nerivania Nunes 4 , Oliveira Fabio Gonçalves de Lima 5 , Santos-Rocha Isabel Medeiros 4 , Meneses Liugo Fernando 4 and Mendonça Maria Cleide 3 1 Universidade Estadual da Paraíba Campus V – Centro de Ciências Biológicas e Sociais Aplicadas, Depto. Biologia. Programa de Pos Graduação em Ecologia e Conservação. 58070-450, João Pessoa, PB, Brazil. 2 Associação Guajiru – Ciência – Educação – Meio Ambiente (non profit). Federal Inscription number 051176990001.98, Scientific Board. Cabedelo, PB, Brazil. 3 Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro - Museu Nacional –Departamento de Entomologia. Programa de Pós Graduação em Ciências Biológicas, Zoologia, Brazil. 4 Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte – Centro de Biociências. Programa de Pós Graduação em Sistemática e Evolução, Brazil. 5 Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia INPA, Brazil 6 Universidade de São Paulo – Museu de Zoologia – Serviço de Invertebrados – Laboratório de Lepidoptera, Brazil. Accepted 11 March, 2013 The diversity of Collembola across three forest types was compared on the basis of species richness, abundance and species turnover. The goal of this study was to identify patterns of diversity at local scale in each forest type sample and to compare it at the regional scale. Our results showed that samples taken from the Atlantic Forest had higher α, ȕ and Ȗ diversity than those from Amazon Campinarana Forest and Caatinga Forest, as a result of soil humidity/moisture and environmental complexity. Samples from Amazon Campinarana Forest shared four species with those from Atlantic Forest, whereas the Caatinga Forest, the driest studied environment, showed the lowest richness, diversity and abundance. The Caatinga Forest was more dissimilar when compared with the other two, with the highest δ diversity, due to the extreme environmental conditions and specialized fauna. These results may have important impact on management and conservation efforts, and highlight the importance of the spatial scale as a parameter for defining conservation units and conservation policies. Key words: Amazon Campinarana, Atlantic Forest, Brazilian Collembola, Caatinga Forest, species turnover. INTRODUCTION The grouping of diversity into categories has been used to compare and describe communities across distinct areas (Gotelli and Colwell, 2001). This grouping results *Corresponding author. E-mail: zeppelini@daad-alumni.de. Tel: 00++83 32231128. from the fact that different spatial scales can share similar environmental characteristics and therefore the population is considered to represent these natural limits (Wilson and Shmida, 1984; Whittaker et al., 2001). In this sense, the description of species composition distributed in single spots is named point diversity or “α diversity”. That illustrates a local natural community. At larger spatial scales, landscape community is described