Abstract:
To understand distribution of Enchytraeids in various vegetation zones and its affecting factors, field investigations were carried out of Enchytraeid community structure relative to vegetation in Kunyu Mountains in September 2011. A total of 351 individuals of clitellates belonging to 4 genera and 10 species were collected. Among them were five species of
Fridericia sp., two species of
Hemienchytraeus sp., two species of
Enchytraeus sp. and one species of
Marionina sp., and
Hemienchytraeus bifurcates,
Fridericia sp5 and
Fridericia dianchiensis were dominate species, whose density was 2458, 2125 and 1333 ind·m
2 and relative abundance 16.5%, 14.2% and 8.9%, respectively. One-Way ANOVA analysis was used to compare different vegetation zones in earthworm density and biodiversity. Results show that mixed forest was the highest in both and followed by broadleaf forest, and coniferous forest and farmland areas were lower. Their means of density, Shannon-Wiener biodiversity, Margalef biodiversity, richness, and Simpson dominant index was 14 917 ind·m
2, 0.92, 0.22, 4 and 0.52, respectively. Non-matric multidimentional scaling (NMS) ordination was used to explore similarity of Enchytraeid communities between different sites. Results show that Stations S1 and S2 were very similar, and Stations S5 and S6 were also very similar in community structure, while Stations S3 and S4 were quite different from each other and from the other stations. Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) indicates that the correlation between species and environmental variables reached up to 96.2%, which suggests that soil water content, total nitrogen and nitrate nitrogen are the major factors affecting structure of the Enchytraeid community.