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Soil organisms are useful for quantification of ecological impact of chemical contamination of soils. This study examined the effects of creosote (complex mixture of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) on composition and abundance of soil invertebrates (nematodes, collembolans and mites) and decomposition processes. Thirty intact soil cores and adjacent litter samples were collected each of three times during the 1998 growing season from soil contaminated with creosote for 50 years. Each core was divided evenly into two subsamples. Abundance of nematodes (by family), Collembola (by family), mites (by Oribatida and others), total bacterial biomass, and active fungal biomass were quantified in the first subsample; soil properties including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) concentration, organic carbon, pH, electrical conductivity (EC), bulk density, soil moisture and soil texture were measured in the second …