Abstract:

Soil animals are a part of soil ecological systems.Community composition and functioning of soil animals have a significant impact on soil formation,material cycle and energy flow.With recognized significance of soil fauna in ecosystem processes,increasing evidence demonstrated that global change has profound effects on soil fauna diversity.Land use change,rising temperature,and changes in precipitation pattern can directly affect soil fauna diversity.Understanding the effects of different driving factors on soil fauna diversity under the background of climate change would help us better predict how the soil fauna diversity and related ecological processes change in the future.From March 2009 to April 2010,the soil animal communities were investigated using the method of Tullgren and hand sorting in three different artificial vegetations (mixed forest,tea garden and farmland) in Fangshan Ecology Park of Nanjing.We collected a total of 3 164 individuals of 27 groups belonging to 23 orders,12 classes,and 5 phyla.The composition of groups,distribution,the number of individuals and diversity index of soil fauna were analyzed.The results showed that Plesiopora,Collembola and Acarina were the dominant community,and Diptera,Homoptera,Hymenoptera,Isopoda,Opisthopora and Coleoptera were the common community in the year round.Among the three types of artificial vegetation,the fluctuation of the number of order and individuals was different:summer>winter>autumn>spring and summer>autumn>winter>autumn.The total number of the individuals was in the order of tea garden>mixed forest>farmland.The results from analysis of variance indicated that the soil animal communities were significant to seasons,different land use patterns,and also to the number of individuals at different communities.The diversity index and the evenness index were the greatest in summer while the diversity index and richness index in tea garden and mixed forest were higher than that in farmland.Soil invertebrate in different artificial vegetations was concentrated in the surface soil,the numbers of individuals in soil decrease rapidly with increase of soil depth.The distribution of trees might be an important factor that influenced the soil communities in greenland.The biodiversity variation among different greenlands can provide help to greenlands design in cities.To remain urban forest litter,strength the management and protection of local zonal vegetation,measures that improve soil conditions and reduce artificial disturbances,such as “wood instead of grass”,would be of significance in improving the invertebrate diversity and enhancing the function of selfcleaning capacity of environment