Community structure and seasonal dynamics of soil fauna at different altitudes in Baishanzu Nature Reserve of Zhejiang Province

From 2008 to 2009, an investigation was made on the soil fauna at five sites along an altitudinal gradient in Baishanzu Nature Reserve of Zhejiang Province. A total of 2409 soil animals were collected, belonging to 18 orders, 7 classes, and 3 phyla, among which, Acarina and Collembola were the dominant orders. With increasing altitude, the Margalef index, Shannon index, and Pielou index of the soil fauna all had a decreasing trend. As for the seasonal dynamics, the Margalef index of the soil fauna at the five altitudes was the highest in summer, slightly lower in autumn and winter, and the lowest in spring, the Shannon index increased slowly from spring to autumn and decreased then, with an overall trend as autumn > summer > spring > winter, the Pielou index had the same variation trend as the Shannon index, while the Simpson index varied with a trend opposite to that of Shannon index.