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Molecular Soil Biology
2013, Vol.4, No.3, 16-26 http://msb.sophiapublisher.com
Research Report
Open Access
Comparison of Soil Macro Fauna Biodiversity in Broad Leaf and Needle Leaf
Afforested Stands
Negar Moghimian , Hashem Habashi , Maryam kheiri
Faculty of Forest Sciences, Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Gorgan, Iran
Corresponding Author email: Negar_Moghimian@yahoo.com;
Author
Molecular Soil Biology, 2013, Vol.4, No.3 doi: 10.5376/msb.2013.04.0003
Copyright
© 2013 Negar Moghimian. This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
This study evaluated the macro fauna diversity in 20 years Cypress, Poplar, Maple and Alder plantation and also adjacent
Natural forest likewise relation with some soil characteristics in shast kela forest that is located in golestan province, northern Iran.
Soil sampling performed using core soil sampler 81 cm
2
areas in bottom from 0~10 and 10~20 cm soil depth in May 2012. 5 samples
randomly selected in each plantation and totally 50 samples were taken then soil macro fauna segregated with hand and were
collected in bags. Then number and fresh weight were measured with 0.01 g accuracy in laboratory. Shannon diversity, Simpson
evenness and margalef richness indices were used for comparing diversity. Data showed that afforested stands significantly affected
macrofauna biodiversity and soil characteristics. The average of soil macrofauna abundance and biomass were consistently higher in
Alder stand than in the other tree plantations, while they were lowest in Cypress plantation. In general, soil macrofauna biodiversity
(for both of abundance and biomass) were decreased in Alder, Maple, Natural forest, Poplar and Cypress, respectively. Most of
biodiversity indices were significantly higher in 0~10 cm than in 10~20 cm depth for abundance and biomass of soil macrofauna.
The Principal Component Analysis (PCA) results suggest that the macrofauna distribution is regulated by total nitrogen and bulk
density. In general, it can be pointed out that soil habitants play a significant role in reviving and rebuilding destructed forests and
accelerating and reinforcing growth in natural forests. This interacts with the genus type and, hence, species must be planted and
reinforced in forest habitats which positively affect biomass and activity of soil habitants and improve habitat conditions and
productivity.
Keywords
Plantation; Natural forest; Macrofauna; Diversity; Richness
Introduction
Although up to the present time, different kinds of
soils have physically and chemically been studied and
classified, but they were not biologically taken as
important. It was for ignoring the roles of living things
to assign soil features and function. Soil creatures can
directly or indirectly affect earth production and yield
(Barrios, 2007). Soil creatures can be regarded as
important and essential elements in any ecological
systems (Tondoh et al., 2007). They also have main
roles to improve soil fertility, earth products and
ecosystem stability (through biological processes)
(Barrios, 2007; Szlavecz et al., 2011). In several
researches (Kelsey et al., 2011; Holdsworth et al.,
2012; Guei et al., 2012; Blouina, 2013) soil fauna is
one of the important features to evaluate its quality
and health which their abundant and biology can be
affected by habitat ecological conditions. Among
these, Macro faunas can be said very salient as soil
creatures in food and energy cycles, which they could
affect mainly organic dynamic and their analysis in
soil (Binkley and Giardina, 1998; Barrios, 2007).
Earthworms are the most essential ones among
macro-faunas family which have the greatest amount
of invertebrate biomass (Sinha et al., 2003; Tondoh et
al., 2007).
Molecular Soil Biolgy
Preferred citation for this article:
Negar Moghimian et al., 2013, Comparison of Soil Macro Fauna Biodiversity in Broad Leaf and Needle Leaf Afforested Stands, Molecular Soil Biology,
Vol.4, No.3 16-26 (doi: 10.5376/msb.2013.04.0003)
Received: 25 Jun., 2013
|
Accepted: 10 Jul., 2013
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Published: 29 Aug., 2013