The structure of soil oribatida communities in the oasis-desert ecotone in southeastern edge of Junggar Basin,Xinjiang

In order to understanding the characteristics of soil oribatid mite communities under different habitats in oasis-desert ecotone on southeastern edge of Junggar basin,Xinjiang,an investigation was made on the soil oribatid mite communities under natural forest,shelter forest,desert grassland,farmland,shrubbery,vegetable land,and desertin April,July,September and November of 2011.The results are as follows :3767 adult individuals of oribtid mites belonging to 43 species,36 genera and 28 families were collected totally,Tectocepheus velatus,Tectocepheus sarekensis,Ceratozetes xinjiangensi and Ceratozetes mediocris are the 4 dominant species,Zygoribatula truncate,Protoribates and Epilohmannia pallida pacifica are the 3 subdominant species.There are significant differences of the species and individual numbers of oribtida among the different habitats(P0.05);there are 1001 individuals belonging to 30 species in the natural forest,whereas 118 individuals belonging to 9 species in the desert.There are also significant differences of the oribatid mites among the season(P0.05),the sequences of individuals are autumn winter summer spring.MGP analysis results shows that the M group is much less than that of P group and G group in the community structure of soil oribatida in this region.The oribatid mites community in this region has a high heterogeneity;there are some differences in their diversity indices of the oribatid mites community.Analysis of Jaccard similarity index shows that the level of the similarities of the soil oribatid mites in the three kinds of woodland habitats are moderately similar(0.50~0.70);Similarity in desert and desert grassland with others are moderately dissimilar(0.25~0.50)and much dissimilar(0.00~0.25).Present study shows that the climate,vegetation and soil differences have significant impact on the structure of oribatid mite communities in that area.