Study on features of soil macrofaunal community in Inner Mongolia typical steppe

From May to September in 1999, the features of soil macrofaunal community were investigated in Inner Mongolia typical steppe. The results showed that a total of 4 080 soil animals were found,which belong to 52 families, 9 orders, 4 classes and 2 phyla. Formicoidae imago and Melolothidae larvea were the dominant soil animal groups. The common groups were Coccidae, Carabidae imago, Carabidae larvea, Buprestidae larvae, Teneberionidae larvae, Melolothidae imago, Rutelidae larvae, Asilidae larvae, Curculionidae imago, Curculionidae larvae and Formicoidae larvae. Under the condition without herding disturbance,the features of soil macrofaunal community featured that the number of soil animal group and individual were higher in spring but the individual number of soil animal was higher and the group number of soil animal was lower in autumn. The density-group index (DG) and the complexity index of community (Ci) were suitable to reflect the biodiversity of soil macrofaunal community in the study region. For the study of ecology of soil macrofaunal community in Inner Mongolia typical steppe, if using 25 cm X 25 cm X 30 cm( length X width X depth) soil quadrat, the number of quadrats for general investigation should be no less than 32 and for other investigations could be properly reduced at least 16.