Effect of Crude Oil Spills on the Abundance and Distribution of Soil Microartropods at Different Depths

An ecological study of the effect of various quantities of crude oil spills on the soil microarthropod fauna was conducted. Three stations P.Q and R were polluted with 0.5, 1.5 and 3.0 L, respectively. The control station C, was not polluted. A total of 553 microarthropods were collected for a period of 6 months. The microarthropod populations collected were classified into 3: Insecta, Acari and Myriapoda which were further divided into 13 families, Soil pH, temperature, moisture content and Total Hydrocarbon Content (THC) were measured. Abundance of microarthropods correlated positively with increasing moisture content and pH and negatively with increasing THC and temperature in the upper 10 cm of soil in stations P, Q and R. Of the total microarthropod, the Acarina and hymenopterans were the most abundant groups. The least abundant were the Isopterans and Myriapods.