Responses of soil fauna to environment degeneration in the process of wind erosion desertification of Hulunbeir steppe

To reveal the relationships between soil fauna and soil environmental factors in the process of steppe desertification,field survey combined with laboratory analysis was made to study the community structure,population density and biodiversity of soil fauna,and their relationships with the changes of soil organic matter,hydrolysable nitrogen,available phosphorus and moisture contents and soil pH at different stages of desertification of Hulunbeir steppe.The soil faunal specimens collected belonged to 4 phyla,6 classes and 12 orders.Nematoda was the only dominant group of medium-and small-sized soil fauna,occupying 94.3% of the total,while Coleoptera and Hemiptera were the dominant groups of large-sized soil fauna,with the amount of 79.7%.The group amount,population density,diversity,and evenness of soil fauna had an obvious decreasing trend with the aggravation of steppe desertification.At serious stage of desertification,soil fauna vanished completely.The population density of soil fauna in 0-20 cm soil layer had significant linear correlations with soil nutrients and moisture contents,soil pH,and litter mass,indicating that soil fauna had stronger sensibility to the changes of soil environmental factors in the process of wind erosion desertification of Hulunbeir steppe.