SOIL MACROFAUNA COMMUNITY STRUCTURE ACROSS LAND USE SYSTEMS OF TAITA, KENYA

This paper presents data on diversity and abundance of soil macrofauna in various land use systems in Taita (natural forest, plantation forest, fallow, coffee, napier, and maize, Horticulture. Each was sampled for macrofauna using three sampling methods (monolith, transect and pitfall trapping). Seventy eight (78) genera/species were recorded across the different land use systems of Taita. Rényi diversity profile indicated no significant differences in species richness across land use systems as reflected by the very close diversity profiles at α = 0. However, the two diversity indices (Shannon index: α = 1 and Simpson’s index: α = 2) indicated that plantation forest was the most diverse of the land use systems, while fallow and maize were least diverse. Rényi evenness profile indicated that the plantation forest was most even in terms of species distribution which was least in maize. However because some of the profiles for some land use systems cross each other, they could not be ranked. The major macrofauna groups recorded in the Taita benchmark site included: Hymenoptera, Isoptera, Coleoptera, Oligochaeta and Orthoptera and Arenae. Generally Hymenoptera were the most abundant of the macrofauna groups constituting about 36% of the total followed by Isoptera (22%), Oligochaeta (16%), Coleoptera (10%). The other macrofauna (Arenae, Diplopoda, Diptera, Orthoptera, Blattidae, Isopoda, Chilopoda- Geopholomorpha, Hemiptera, Opiliones,Chiopoda-Scolopendromorpha, Lepidoptera, Dermaptera, Phasmidae, Blattelidae and Mantodea each constituted