Community Structure of Soil Fauna in Kiwifruit Orchards in Spring

Abstract

Soil fauna is an important component of soil ecosystems,which plays an important role in decomposing biological remains,affecting soil properties and enhancing material recycling and energy conversion in the soil.To understand the impacts of kiwifruit orchards on soil fauna is essential to achieve sustainable plantation management and conservation of biodiversity.Therefore,an investigation on soil fauna was carried out in kiwifruit orchards,mixed forest and cropland.Soil macro-fauna were picked up by hand.Nematodes and mesofauna were separated and collected from the soil samples by Baermann and Tullgren methods,respectively.A total of 3 195 individuals of soil fauna,belonging to 4 phyla,10 classes and 24 orders were collected,with an average density of 1.70×104 ind./m2.The highest density of total species was found in cropland and lowest density in kiwifruit orchards.The community in kiwifruit orchards was found to be dominated by Nematoda,accounting for 74.59% of the individuals.Collembola,Acarina,Diptera,Nematoda and Araneae were the dominant groups in mixed forest,accounting for 19.61%,15.28%,10.28%,30.56% and 10.22% of the individuals,respectively.Hymenoptera and Nematoda were the dominant groups in cropland,accounting for 17.17% and 56.45% of the individuals,respectively.The lowest Acarina/Collembola(A/C) value was found in cropland,indicating that cropland is affected by disturbance from agricultural activity.The Shannon-Wiener index,Pielou index,and Density-groups index were higher in mixed forest than in kiwifruit orchards and cropland,but Simpson index was lower in mixed forest than in kiwifruit orchards and cropland,showing that mixed forest has higher community stability compared with kiwifruit orchards and cropland.