Böðvarsson (1957), in an extensive study of
Icelandic Collembola, recorded 76 species.
A species list by Ólafsson (1991) contains
77 species and later studies of the Icelandic
Collembola fauna have increased the number
to 140 (Fjellberg 2006, 2007). This is still considerably
less than in the Scandinavian countries
which have 200-300 species of Collembola
each (Fjellberg 2006). The low species number
in Iceland is partly because of insufficient
studies but is certainly also related to the geographical
isolation of the country.
Microarthropods belonging to Acari and Collembola
are the two dominating groups of surface-living
invertebrates collected in pitfall
traps in Icelandic grasslands (Gudleifsson &
Bjarnadottir 2002) and moderate fertilization
in general increases their abundance (Gudleifsson
2002). The composition and abundance of
microarthropods in Icelandic grasslands is not
well known and the impact of human management
on Collembola has not been investigated.