Community diversity of soil arthropods in forest-steppe ecotone

An investigation on the community diversity of soil arthropods in the forest-steppe ecotone of north Hebei Province was conducted. A total of 10 420 individuals of soil arthropods were collected, which belonged to 25 groups, 6 classes and 24 orders. Acarina and Collembola were the dominant orders, and there were 8 groups of frequent orders and 15 groups of rare orders. The diversity index (H'), DG index, and evenness of soil arthropod community were relatively higher in forest zone, but lower in meadow-steppe zone. Soil pH had a higher degree of interconnection with the numbers of soil arthropod groups, while soil temperature and moisture content had a higher degree of interconnection with the numbers of soil arthropod individuals.