Abstract
Land failure must cause severe damage to the soil faunal communities. The recovery of them seems to take long time because the litter layers, which are their habitats, run off, although it’s not verified. So the purpose of this study is to show the recovery process of soil faunal communities in hillside works area, and clarify whether hillside works can recover the original condition of the soil faunal communities. Four study sites were chosen on Mt. Esan, Hokkaido where hillside works were constructed in different years(1989, 1987, 1980 and 1973)to study the chronological fluctuation of the soil faunal communities. The results suggest that land failure make soil faunal communities decrease, but soil fauna gradually recovers as vegetation grows. Soil faunal communities in hillside works area, however, seem to be peculiar compared with other soil faunal communities in ordinary forests. In conclusion, this study indicates there are factors that obstruct the stabilization of soil environment in hillside works area.
