tudies on Collembola of mine sites already exist,
but mainly for shorter periods, in Europe (Davis
1963; Dunger 1968, 1979; Hutson 1981; Materna
1999; Moore and Luxton 1986; Wermbter 1999;
Zerling 1990), Canada (Parsons and Parkinson
1986), Siberia (Stebaeva and Andrievskii 1997),
and Australia (Greenslade and Majer 1980). Longterm
investigations as presented here describe the
changes in collembolan species composition according
to the appearance of different colonising
groups. From the viewpoint of rehabilitation
management success it is important to know
whether there is an age-dependent stepwise trend
towards a ‘‘woodland fauna’’ and whether the
knowledge of collembolan species succession in
mine sites is useful for characterising the developmental
stage of the soil system