Ecological Distributions and Community Compositions of the Soil Macro-animals in the Mid-west Plain of Jilin Province

soil macro-animals in the mid-west plain of Jilin Province were investigated with the emphasis on species richness and abundance in relation to five types of land use I.e. farm garden, farmland, Three-North Forest Shelterbelt, natural secondary forest and natural mowing pasture. Soil macro-animals were collected by hand-sorting. A total of 5 842 soil macro-animal individuals were captured and classified into 3 phylums, 7 classes, 16 orders and 101 families. Lasius Tetramorium and Achaeta were the dominant groups that accounted for 49.20% of the total individuals. The results suggested that the types of land use affected the species richness and abundance, and human activity has a significant impact on the soil macro-animals community. Agricultural activity reduced soil macro-animal diversity, but did not change their vertical distributions in the soil profile. The results also showed that the differences in the composition of the soil macro-animal community between the middle plain and the west plain in Jilin Province were mainly explained by the dominant group density and rare group numbers in all habitats.