Abstract: The evergreen broad-leaved forest represents the pinnacle stage of vegetation succession within the dolomite karst mountain forest ecosystem in the Shibing Karst World Natural Heritage Property. To characterize the soil mite community in this forest type, soil mites were collected and identified from three distinct vegetation types in the Heritage Property in September 2021. The community structure of the soil mites was analyzed using several parameters, including the number of genera, number of individuals, community diversity, and ecological indices of Mesostigmata and Oribatida. Additionally, the relationship between the soil mite community and environmental factors was investigated. A total of 1 563 soil mites were captured, comprising 91 genera in 55 families of 3 orders, with Perscheloribates identified as the dominant taxon. Dominant and common taxa constituted the fundamental components of soil mites in the evergreen broad-leaved forest ecosystems, with the rare taxa contributing primarily to the increase in mite genera. Spatial analysis of soil mite community structure and diversity revealed the following pattern: EBF1 > EBF2 > EBF3 in the horizontal direction and humic layer > upper soil layer > lower soil layer in the vertical direction. Moreover, the community distribution displayed evident surface aggregation characteristics. Quantitative analysis of community similarity, based on the number of mite genera, demonstrates that soil mite communities between vegetation types exhibited moderate or highly similar levels, directly associated with the presence of rare taxa. Ecological taxa analysis of Oribatid mites predominantly featured the O-type Poronota group, while Mesostigmata ecological taxa were primarily characterized by the r selective type. Correlation analysis indicate that the evenness index is significantly negatively correlated with soil total phosphorus and positively correlated with soil pH. Soil porosity, soil water content, and soil organic matter all exhibited significant positive correlations (P<0.05) with each parameter of the soil mite community, except for the evenness index. Redundancy analysis demonstrated that, excluding rare taxa, the composition of soil mite communities varied considerably among vegetation types, with soil organic matter serving as the primary environmental factor significantly impacting the distribution of soil mite communities (P<0.05). These findings offer data support and a theoretical foundation for the research and conservation of soil biodiversity in forest ecosystems of the Central Subtropical Karst World Heritage Property.

Key words: soil mites, community structure, evergreen broad-leaved forest, World Natural Heritage, Shibing Karst, soil environmental factors