Community Structure and Seasonal Change of Soil Mesofauna in Quzhou Region,Zhejiang

Data on soil mesofauna in fields of bamboo(as natural soil,NS),paddy rice,tea,orange,cabbage(as cultivated lands,CL) and fallow(as arable,A) were collected in Quzhou region in a period from March to December,2001.Using the community parameters of population density,group richness(GR),diversity index(DI) and evenness,we described the community structure and its seasonal changes,and clustered the Euclidean distances among the soil types.There were 19 groups of mesofauna in this region,and of the groups Acarina and Collembola were dominant,and Diptera,Coleoptera and Hymenoptera were often seen.Based on annual data,there was a difference in the community structure of the mesofauna between NS and CL-A(for NS,GR=13.25±0.25,DI=2.27±0.28;for CL-A,GR=7.55±0.88,DI=1.57±0.15),but no difference among soil types of CL-A.Based on seasonal data on the community structures of the mesofauna in the 6 soil types,the fields of cabbage,tea and orange showed the highest similarity.They then joined with rice field,and fallow,finally with bamboo field.Of the soil types,bamboo field had the highest GR and DI,and could possibly be ranked the best in quality in this region.