N) The North Woods is a 90-acre, oak-hickory forest that was restored in the late 1980s and replanted with native shrubs and wildflowers.

R) The Ramble, perhaps best known as a premier birding location, is a forest patch of 34 acres with many oak and black cherry trees as well as non-native plants such as Japanese knotweed and wisteria. In recent years, Park managers have been working to restore sections of the Ramble, improving soil quality and adding new plantings of native woodland species.

H) The Hallett Sanctuary, located at the southern end of the Park, is a four-acre forest patch that has been fenced with chainlink for many years, restricting public access. Park managers and volunteers have recently begun restoration work in Hallett, to remove non-native plants from the understory and replace them with native species.

		We collected leaf litter invertebrates from these three areas of the Park during the months of September, April, and July from September 1997 to September 1998.
Jessica Zimmer, Alison Shapiro and Kefyn Catley hand-sorting leaf litter in the Ramble.

Handfuls of the collected leaves, twigs and bits of soil were first sifted by shaking them through a sieve (concentrator) to remove the larger leaves and twigs.
		Achille Raselimanana using leaf litter concentrator to sift samples, separating twigs and larger leaves from smaller litter and invertebrates.

		The samples were then processed in a Berlese funnel to separate the specimens from the remaining soils and smaller bits of leaves.
One of the Berlese funnels used to extract litter samples in this study.

The invertebrates have been identified to species where possible and are preserved in 75 percent ethanol.