Diversity of soil invertebrate communities at Yushan Hill, Changshu, Jiangsu Province
江苏常熟虞山土壤动物群落多样性研究

A preliminary study on the diversity of soil invertebrate communities was conducted at Yushan Hill, Changshu, Jiangsu Province. Twenty-six taxa of invertebrates were identified, belonging to 10 clas- ses and five phyla, of which Acarina, Collembola and Nematoda were dominant, accounting for 88.2% of the total individuals. Vegetations at Yushan Hill were grouped into three categories: pine-broad-leaf mixed forest, tea garden and bamboo forest. Pine-broad-leaf mixed forest ranked the highest in taxon and individual numbers of invertebrates, H' index, DG index and DIC index. The lowest was in the bamboo forest. Evenness (J) of invertebrates in the three categories showed a complex pattern of variation: the highest value was observed in tea garden and the lowest in bamboo forest. The invertebrate community in bamboo forest had the highest Simpson index (C) compared with the other two forests. The results also showed that the similarity (q) of soil invertebrates among these three forests was moderate (q>0.5) in all communities. The numbers of groups in soil decrease rapidly with increase in depth of soil layer.