Community Characteristics of Soil Fauna at Oasis-desert Ecotone in Southeastern Edge of the Junggar Basin,Xinjiang,China

For understanding the characteristics of community structure,diversity and seasonal dynamics of soil fauna at different habitats of oasis-desert ecotone in southeastern edge of the Junggar basin,an investigation was conducted in April,July,September and November of 2010 by using field sampling method.Results are as follows:(1) A total of 9 788 soil animals were captured and they can be classified into 4 phyla,12 classes,32 orders.The dominant groups included Oribatida,Collembola,Mesostigmata and Prostigmata,and the common groups included Tylenchida,Coleoptera larvae,Hymenoptera,Astigmata,Thysanoptera and Diptera larvae.The dominant groups and the common groups accounted for 96.27% of the total samples,and the other 22 groups belonged to the rare groups and they only accounted for 3.73% of the total samples.(2) There were significant differences in community composition,individual number and diversity of soil fauna among the 8 different habitats in the oasis-desert ecotone(P0.05),and the orders of group number in different habitats were natural forestshelter forestgrasslandshrubberycroplandvegetable landgrasslanddesert,and the sequences of individual number were vegetable landcroplandgrasslandshelter forestnatural forestgrasslandshrubberydesert.(3) The vertical distribution of the individual density in soil profile showed surface accumulation in the layer of 0~5 cm and declined with depth increasing of soil layer.(4) There were significantly seasonal variations in the composition and individuals of soil animal community,and the sequence of seasonal dynamics of individual numbers of the soil fauna were WinterAutumnSpringSummer.