**3.6 Other pioneer groups**

On a four year old barren moraine at Hardangerjøkulen glacier in South Norway, extraction of soil samples revealed the presence of Rotatoria and at least five different Nematoda genera. Tardigrada was found close to a single plant of *Poa alpina* (Christer Magnusson, pers. comm). In Austria, Kaufmann et al. (2002) found both Nematoda and Enchytraeidae in soil samples younger than 40 years. On Svalbard, Hodkinson et al. (2004) recorded larvae of terrestrial Chironomidae after 2 years and Enchytraeidae after 37 years.
