Inventory of Soil Invertebrate Macrofauna, Bioindicator of Soil Quality, Along a Toposequence in an Agro-Ecological Area of Ahoue (southern C?te d?Ivoire)

The spatial variation of the soilmacrofauna (greater than 2 mm) is one of the major determining factors of soil quality. The objective of this work is to examine the spatial typology of soil invertebrate macrofauna, along a toposequence inAhoue an agroecological zone (southern Ivory Coast). The sampling method used was performed according to the monoliths method of dimensions 25x25x30 cm as defined by the method of Tropical SoilBiologyand Fertility / UNESCO (TSBF). Multivariate analyzes showed significant differences in the distribution of soil invertebrate macrofauna, based on level of soil degradation according to topographic positions. The statistical analysis method of the principal component analysis (PCA) and redundancy analysis (RDA) enable to classify, predict and select the best set of descriptive variables in the different topographical positions. This study contributes to the knowledge of bio-indicators in the topographic positions, based on soil invertebrate macrofauna. This knowledge is very important for maintaining soil quality, which is essential for sustainable ecosystems management.